With 14 participation points less than the last presidential elections, (42% up against 56% in 2015), right-wing candidate Alejandro Giammattei, wins with 58.4% of the votes. Giammattei, who is ex-prisons director for the Guatemalan government, swept to victory in Sunday’s elections in representation of the party Vamos Guatemala, a formation that represents the conservative principles of law and order, god, and the traditional family.
Increasingly less voters took to the urns, and those who did appear to have voted more against the ex-first lady Sandra Torres rather than in favour of Giammattei, a character lacking in charisma who has already presented himself for three previous presidential elections unsuccessfully (2007, 2012, 2015), and has run with four different political parties.
The winning candidate will replace outgoing president, the christian ex-comedian Jimmy Morales, who has been implicated in fraud scandals relating to his campaign financing, but who received immunity from investigation during his presidency.
Morales was also the protagonist of a crusade against the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, an organisation supported by the UN, by protecting many individuals accused of illicit activity and by expelling its international employees several times from the country. Many believe this was due to his own fear of corruption accusations against him.
Guatemala has also become the focus of migratory tension in the region. Ex-president Morales signed an agreement with the Trump administration two months ago to use Guatemala as a temporary prison for Central American migrants looking for asylum in the US.
This agreement has drawn controversy as it would also mean the denial of asylum of migrants that travel through Guatemala on their route to the United States.
With the election of Giammattei there is a lot at stake in the region, and that is why we present some keys to understanding how this presidency could impact Guatemala and beyond.
The non-continuity of the International Commission Against Impunity
The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) was created 11 years ago with the backing of the UN and the Guatemalan government. It was created with the intention of investigating “illegal security bodies and clandestine organisations that commit crimes and affect the fundamental human rights of the Guatemalan people”, and to identify their links with politicians/state employees, and their financial structures.
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