Not really, but I won't be surprised if Republicans try to spin it that way.
And, frankly, this surprises me. Historically, America is usually very quick to support right-wing candidates, no matter how authoritarian.
Before we lefties get giddy, it's likely to be the case that we are, in fact, supporting the right-wing candidate, and just paying lip service to democracy. Still, lip service in favor of democracy is better than opposing it.
Biden administration officials are working intentely to prevent the Guatemalan government, one of their few allies in Central America, from overturning election results that put a leftist in next week’s presidential runoff — to the dismay of right-wing elites in that country who have long called the shots.
With persistent phone calls, in-person visits, public denouncements and sanctions on key people including Guatemala’s attorney general, U.S. officials are warning the country’s powerful military, political and business forces of the danger of subverting democracy.
On Sunday, Guatemalans will choose their next president from the two top vote-getters in a June 25 election: Sandra Torres, a conservative former first lady favored by the establishment who came in first, and Bernardo Arévalo, a left-of-center politician who campaigned against corruption and stunned the country by finishing a close second.
As soon as those results became clear, the power elite in the government and military jumped into action with numerous attempts to bar Arévalo from the runoff.
Courts controlled by the right wing in Guatemala attempted to invalidate Arévalo‘s political party and sent police to raid his offices. They have threatened legal action to challenge Arévalo‘s eligibility to be a candidate and delayed certification of the June 25 results. Several losing political parties, including that of President Alejandro Giammattei and another of the daughter of a military dictator convicted of genocide, filed unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the election.
For many longtime scholars of Latin America, the viability of democratic rule is at stake. Guatemala’s crossroads comes as El Salvador is abandoning democracy, Nicaragua’s rule of law is long gone and Honduras teeters on the brink. The emergence of yet another dictator in the region would be an embarrassment for the Biden administration, analysts say, making it important for the U.S. to show it still has leverage in the Western Hemisphere despite inroads made by China.
The United States “is deeply concerned by efforts that interfere with the June 25 election result,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in a statement that was unusually strong in criticizing an ally’s election process. He warned against “actions to interfere with the election result” which, he said, “violate the spirit of Guatemala’s constitution and threaten the legitimacy of its democratic process.”
Washington was quickly joined by the European Union and the Organization of American States, showing rare unity to condemn the Guatemalan governmental actions. Both fielded nationwide observer missions for the June election, judging it a fair process.
Who prevails — the U.S. and the international community, or antidemocratic forces inside Guatemala — remains to be seen.
But the political turmoil of the last months highlighted what has been a steady backslide in Central America’s largest country. In a region awash in violence, poverty and corruption, Guatemala not so long ago appeared to be on a better path.
With international support, serious corruption investigations were being conducted by Guatemalan prosecutors and judges, and important players, such as a former president, landed in jail.
Vice President Kamala Harris chose Guatemala as the lone Central American country she visited when the administration in its early days launched an initiative aimed at improving economic and political conditions in the region as a way to ease illegal immigration.
But Biden administration officials may have failed to notice that the tide had turned in Guatemala during the Trump era, with traditional economic and political elites in the country starting to reassert their control.
Until 2019, a widely praised United Nations-sponsored anticorruption investigatory body, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, which was founded in 2006, had remarkable success fighting organized crime and corruption. Its work helped reduce homicides by 32%, dismantled 60 of Guatemala’s pervasive and destructive drug and trafficking cartels, and indicted more than 600 people, according to a 2018 analysis by the International Crisis Group.
It also began to prosecute previously untouchable members of the elite, leading to the investigation of three former presidents, Otto Pérez Molina, Alfonso Portillo and Álvaro Colom (Portillo was extradited to the U.S. and sentenced to five years in prison) ; a vice president, Roxana Baldetti, and a first lady: current candidate Torres, who was jailed for a while until charges were dismissed.
In 2019, then-President Jimmy Morales, a former comedian and Christian evangelical who courted the favor of Trump and Republican conservatives, announced he was dismantling the commission. He declared its head, respected jurist Iván Velásquez, persona non grata and barred him from entering the country.
There was widespread outrage over Morales’ moves inside Guatemala, in the U.S. and in European capitals. But the Trump administration, generally dismissive of international cooperation and corruption probes, did not weigh in to support the commission.
The situation deteriorated from there, according to Guatemalan and U.S. analysts and current and former officials. Guatemala was back to business as usual, as one diplomat put it, with rampant corruption and a lack of accountability. Old-guard Guatemalan officials squashed the investigations and then went after anticorruption judges, forcing many to flee the country.
more here:
www.latimes.com
And, frankly, this surprises me. Historically, America is usually very quick to support right-wing candidates, no matter how authoritarian.
Before we lefties get giddy, it's likely to be the case that we are, in fact, supporting the right-wing candidate, and just paying lip service to democracy. Still, lip service in favor of democracy is better than opposing it.
Biden administration warns Guatemala against rejecting democracy in presidential election
Biden administration officials are working intentely to prevent the Guatemalan government, one of their few allies in Central America, from overturning election results that put a leftist in next week’s presidential runoff — to the dismay of right-wing elites in that country who have long called the shots.
With persistent phone calls, in-person visits, public denouncements and sanctions on key people including Guatemala’s attorney general, U.S. officials are warning the country’s powerful military, political and business forces of the danger of subverting democracy.
On Sunday, Guatemalans will choose their next president from the two top vote-getters in a June 25 election: Sandra Torres, a conservative former first lady favored by the establishment who came in first, and Bernardo Arévalo, a left-of-center politician who campaigned against corruption and stunned the country by finishing a close second.
As soon as those results became clear, the power elite in the government and military jumped into action with numerous attempts to bar Arévalo from the runoff.
Courts controlled by the right wing in Guatemala attempted to invalidate Arévalo‘s political party and sent police to raid his offices. They have threatened legal action to challenge Arévalo‘s eligibility to be a candidate and delayed certification of the June 25 results. Several losing political parties, including that of President Alejandro Giammattei and another of the daughter of a military dictator convicted of genocide, filed unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the election.
For many longtime scholars of Latin America, the viability of democratic rule is at stake. Guatemala’s crossroads comes as El Salvador is abandoning democracy, Nicaragua’s rule of law is long gone and Honduras teeters on the brink. The emergence of yet another dictator in the region would be an embarrassment for the Biden administration, analysts say, making it important for the U.S. to show it still has leverage in the Western Hemisphere despite inroads made by China.
The United States “is deeply concerned by efforts that interfere with the June 25 election result,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in a statement that was unusually strong in criticizing an ally’s election process. He warned against “actions to interfere with the election result” which, he said, “violate the spirit of Guatemala’s constitution and threaten the legitimacy of its democratic process.”
Washington was quickly joined by the European Union and the Organization of American States, showing rare unity to condemn the Guatemalan governmental actions. Both fielded nationwide observer missions for the June election, judging it a fair process.
Who prevails — the U.S. and the international community, or antidemocratic forces inside Guatemala — remains to be seen.
But the political turmoil of the last months highlighted what has been a steady backslide in Central America’s largest country. In a region awash in violence, poverty and corruption, Guatemala not so long ago appeared to be on a better path.
With international support, serious corruption investigations were being conducted by Guatemalan prosecutors and judges, and important players, such as a former president, landed in jail.
Vice President Kamala Harris chose Guatemala as the lone Central American country she visited when the administration in its early days launched an initiative aimed at improving economic and political conditions in the region as a way to ease illegal immigration.
But Biden administration officials may have failed to notice that the tide had turned in Guatemala during the Trump era, with traditional economic and political elites in the country starting to reassert their control.
Until 2019, a widely praised United Nations-sponsored anticorruption investigatory body, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, which was founded in 2006, had remarkable success fighting organized crime and corruption. Its work helped reduce homicides by 32%, dismantled 60 of Guatemala’s pervasive and destructive drug and trafficking cartels, and indicted more than 600 people, according to a 2018 analysis by the International Crisis Group.
It also began to prosecute previously untouchable members of the elite, leading to the investigation of three former presidents, Otto Pérez Molina, Alfonso Portillo and Álvaro Colom (Portillo was extradited to the U.S. and sentenced to five years in prison) ; a vice president, Roxana Baldetti, and a first lady: current candidate Torres, who was jailed for a while until charges were dismissed.
In 2019, then-President Jimmy Morales, a former comedian and Christian evangelical who courted the favor of Trump and Republican conservatives, announced he was dismantling the commission. He declared its head, respected jurist Iván Velásquez, persona non grata and barred him from entering the country.
There was widespread outrage over Morales’ moves inside Guatemala, in the U.S. and in European capitals. But the Trump administration, generally dismissive of international cooperation and corruption probes, did not weigh in to support the commission.
The situation deteriorated from there, according to Guatemalan and U.S. analysts and current and former officials. Guatemala was back to business as usual, as one diplomat put it, with rampant corruption and a lack of accountability. Old-guard Guatemalan officials squashed the investigations and then went after anticorruption judges, forcing many to flee the country.
more here:
Biden administration warns Guatemala against rejecting democracy in presidential election
U.S. officials are warning Guatemala's powerful military, political and business forces of the danger of subverting democracy ahead of Sunday's presidential run-off election in the Central American country.
www.latimes.com
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