In Guatemalan Election, a Focus on Security Issues

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

MEXICO CITY — Guatemalans streamed to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president, Parliament and local leaders in an election defined by rising concerns about gangs and drug cartels. Voters waiting to cast ballots from the countryside to the capital said they were motivated mostly by the fear of violent crime, and demands for a stronger government response.

“There are innocent people dying in the streets, in the neighborhoods, all over the country,” said Domingo Cabinal Rodríguez, 23, an agronomist in Cotzal, a mountain town north of Guatemala City. “What we most urgently need is security.”

Mr. Cabinal said he was voting for Otto Pérez Molina, a former general who was seen as the front-runner before Election Day. Mr. Pérez Molina was one of 10 presidential candidates, and it was not clear whether he would attract enough votes — 50 percent plus one vote — to win outright.

Experts said that a runoff was more likely, with Mr. Pérez Molina facing either Manuel Baldizón, 41, a wealthy businessman from northern Guatemala who is running as a populist, or Eduardo Suger, 72, an academic who built a network of private universities.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/world/americas/12guatemala.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. US GOVERNMENT GLOSSES OVER WAR CRIME ACCUSATIONS AGAINST LEADING GUATEMALAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

US GOVERNMENT GLOSSES OVER WAR CRIME ACCUSATIONS AGAINST LEADING GUATEMALAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
By Annie Bird, Rights Action, [e-mail], April 27, 2011

A Wikileak State Department cable, published April 14, 2011 in the Spanish newspaper El Pais, revealed current US Ambassador to Guatemala Stephan McFarland's dismissal of the possibility that current front running presidential candidate, former General Otto Perez Molina, participated in war crimes, despite widespread evidence to the contrary.

Criminals who gained control of political and economic power in Guatemala during the US-backed military governments that followed the 1954 CIA-coup in Guatemala continue to hold power even after almost 20 years of United Nations commissions focused on disarming, exposing and prosecuting the clandestine networks of criminal power.

The cable exposes one of the reasons why - the US willingness to conduct 'business as usual' with those implicated in these networks.

McFarland's whitewashing of war crimes charges is both not surprising and extremely concerning, given that McFarland is a player in the diplomatic team assembled by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte to usher in the largest "aid" package for Central American security forces since the 1980s.

More:
http://www.rightsaction.org/articles/US_glosses_over_PerezMolina_050211.html

[Judi Lynn]

2. More to consider concerning Guatemala's probable next President, and US ally:

From the article posted immediately above:

PEREZ MOLINA IMPLICATED IN MURDER, TORTURE AND MASSACRES

In addition, journalists have implicated Perez Molina in the 1994 killing of Judge Edgar Ramiro Elias Ogaldez, who was involved in the investigation of the murders that year of two Mayan Presbyterian pastors, a crime for which military officials were being investigated, and also of the 1998 murder of Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi.

There have also been legal denouncements made to Guatemalan authorities in other cases that implicate Perez Molina. That he has never been prosecuted is not surprising given that no soldier has yet been prosecuted for the genocide and other war crimes during Guatemala's armed conflict which resulted in over 250,000 victims, according to the United Nations sponsored truth commission, ... at least 96% of those at the hands of State forces. The majority of victims were Mayan people and the overwhelming majority of victims were unarmed men, women and children.

That these accusations are not widely reported in the Guatemalan press is due to fear for the safety of the victim's family and fear of retribution for reporting. It is also due to widely recognized censorship by owners of Guatemalan national news sources.

Publicly denouncing Otto Perez Molina is a scary thing to do, especially since those who know about his implication in crimes during the years of State repression and genocide also know that many believe he may be implicated in gruesome crimes his former colleagues in the military intelligence and death squads continue to commit, now as part of organized crime networks.

[Bacchus39]

3. Guatemala election: Perez Molina set to face Baldizon

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14878414

Guatemala's presidential election is set for a second round in November, after front-runner Otto Perez Molina fell well short of an outright win.

With most ballots counted, Mr Perez Molina, a former army general, had 36% of the vote, with businessman Manuel Baldizon on 23%.

Both candidates have promised to boost spending on security.

The campaign was dominated by rising violence blamed on street gangs and Mexican drug cartels.