"Guatemala has not had conservative governments, but rather corrupt governments," said President
Bernardo Arévalo
in an interview with EFE , the first progressive leader of the Central American country since the reestablishment of democracy in 1986, who believes that the most urgent thing now is to combat that legacy left to him by his predecessors.
“Calling them conservative is doing them a favor.
"We have not had conservative governments, we have had corrupt governments that have disguised themselves as ideology," says the brand new Guatemalan president, who took office twelve days ago after
a tumultuous
five-month transition that almost led to a coup d'état.
The support from the international community counterbalanced the harassment of a part of the country's political, judicial and business elite towards Arévalo and his party, the Semilla Movement, which emerged from the 2015 anti-corruption protests that led to the president's
resignation. Otto Pérez Molina, later sentenced to 16 years in prison
and currently free on bail.
Bernardo Arévalo de León, sociologist and diplomat born in Uruguay in 1958 during his family's exile, has been in power for twelve days and one of his first decisions has been to recover the emblematic presidential office of his father, Juan José Arévalo (1945-1951). ), first democratically elected president of Guatemala and architect of the "1944 Revolution", a period of significant social and political changes in the country.
President Bernardo Arévalo and his vice president, Karin Herrera, after taking office on January 15 in Guatemala.
Photo: AP
Democracy and social justice
“My father was a man with a clear democratic vision and fight for social justice.
“Those are two central elements of my government,” says Arévalo.
The purpose of his predecessors “was not to manage the public, but simply to get their hands on the public treasury,” a theft that according to him has cost the country 40 quetzales (about 14,763 million dollars).
“The best example we have is the government that just ended, which leaves behind corruption scandals that are truly incredible,” he points out, referring to the administration of
Alejandro Giammattei
(2020-2024), who currently enjoys immunity due to his status as a member. of the Central American Parliament.
In fact, last Friday Arévalo annulled the government agreement with which his predecessor guaranteed security agents and vehicles to the members of his close circle after handing over his positions on January 14, because "security must be at the service of citizens." , not a few."
Arévalo is obsessed with this problem (he mentions the word “corruption” on average once a minute), but in addition to “fighting for transparency in public management,” the axes of his Presidency are “rescuing democratic institutions” and “resolving the development problems” of a country where, according to the World Bank,
55.2% of the population lives in poverty.
“The most urgent thing is the fight against corruption, but the most important thing is the fight for the well-being of the people,” he emphasizes.
We must "rescue democratic institutions, not use them as a screen to assault power and generate a situation of impunity for corruption and carry out political persecution, which is what has happened during the last governments," says Arévalo, who has been in the sights of the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, since June 25 of last year, when - against all odds - she managed to advance to the second round of the presidential election.
Followers of Bernardo Arévalo, in a march against then-president Alejandro Giammatei and other officials whom they accused of being "coup plotters," in September.
Photo: AFP
Attorney General Harassment
Porras has carried out a
harassment
and demolition operation against Arévalo and the ruling Semilla Movement described as an “attempted coup d'état” by various international actors, from the Joe Biden Administration to the Parliament and the European Commission, through the Organization of American States (OAS) and most of the governments of the region.
Before assuming the presidency, Arévalo assured that he would ask the attorney general to resign.
He is now
more cautious
with his words, although he remains firmly determined that “the Public Ministry ceases the process of harassment of the democratic institutions that it has been leading and assumes an operation in accordance with democratic principles.”
Ensuring political stability and avoiding attempts at democratic reversal are two other important challenges for his Presidency, which will have to
deal with a Parliament in which his party only has 23 of the 160 seats
.
That is why the new Guatemalan president - in whose office
microphones and spy devices
were found - insists that “governance has to involve actors with the will to defend democratic institutions and who operate from civil society,” such as the movement indigenous people, peasant communities and the private sector.
Government plans
“The first thing to do,” he says, “is to put the State institutions to work, so that they provide services to areas where there is absolute marginalization.
We have had exclusive development processes that marginalize.
“We have operated on the basis of racism.”
Arévalo is aware that there is no magic formula to guarantee
economic growth
and improve the living conditions of Guatemalans in the four years of his mandate, but he is clear that the roadmap involves concentrating government plans in the areas of the most historically abandoned country, implement mechanisms to strengthen small and medium-sized businesses, and attract investments.
“We have made an explicit invitation to foreign investment.
The reason why not much investment has come to Guatemala is precisely because there was no legal certainty with the government and Cortes in the hands of corrupt figures,” he acknowledges.
“The last governments placed our country as a pariah on the international scene,” laments the president of Guatemala, who was vice minister of Foreign Affairs (1994-1995) and ambassador to Spain (1995-1996) during the Ramiro government. by León Carpio.
"Guatemala - he emphasizes - needs a strong multilateral system, good relations with the international community and joint work with the democracies of the world to create a scenario of respect for the principles of International Law, which is the best guarantee for small countries, such as our".
Source: EFE
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