Poverty, violence and corruption: the challenges of …

Faced with a complex social landscape, Guatemalans elected Conservative Alejandro Giammattei, an active defender of the death penalty. The candidate won the ballot of the Social Democrat and former first lady, Sandra Torres.

The preliminary results of the Supreme Electoral Court indicate that the Vamos party candidate adds 50.68% of the poyos (1 559 481 votes), while the candidate of the national unity of hope counts 40.32 percent. cent (1,053,733 votes), with 70% of the tables examined.

The new president will have to deal with disturbing data. Chronic malnutrition was under the management of Jimmy Morales and affected 46% of children under 5 years old. The poverty rate, meanwhile, has risen to 59%.

The violence leaves a record of 4,500 murders a year. According to the UN, the North Triangle of Central America (made up of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras) is the most violent region in the world without armed conflict. Over the past year, it has generated huge waves of migration to the United States.

The two presidential candidates avoided referring to the agreement signed at the end of July with the US government, which aimed to make Guatemala a "safe third country", which means receiving migrants with the aim of demanding the asylum on the American territory. This deal rocked the last stretch of the campaign and generated a lot of criticism and legal action.

In 2015, Guatemalans were hoping to tackle corruption, another of the issues that concern society, following the arrest of President Otto Pérez, motivated by the work of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). But these hopes were diluted with the end of CICIG's duties in September, since Morales gave up extending his mission until 2021, after the entity and the prosecutor's office asked to open an investigation into him. for the illegal financing of his campaign.

The turn of the hard hand

Alejandro Giammattei, a 63-year-old doctor, is introduced again this year, after also asking the presidency on three occasions (under the umbrella of different parties). This time, he competed for Vamos, a right-wing group with a strong pro-military speech. The candidate proposes, for example, the reactivation of the death penalty and the application of a hard hand to fight crime and drug trafficking. Finally, on the economic front, he promises to create an "investment wall" on the Mexican border to put an end to migration.

His stint in the penitentiary system, which he led between 2005 and 2007, did not escape scandals. During his speech, seven prisoners were killed at the criminal farm in Pavón, as part of the Peabad operation, officially organized to regain control of the prison. The court ruled that it was a deliberate act and accused Giammattei and other officials of their participation. After ten months in prison, a court filed the case and Giammattei was able to recover his freedom.