By David Toro Escobar |
Guatemala City (EFE).- The progressive candidate Bernardo Arévalo de León, surprising second place in the elections last Sunday in Guatemala, assures that the “battle against corruption is the most urgent thing” to be resolved in the Central American country and considers key to their electoral promotion to women and youth.
“As long as we don’t get rid of the corrupt state officials, Guatemala will not be able to think about development,” Arévalo de León told EFE during an interview in his legislative office, located in downtown Guatemala City.
The candidate of the political group Movimiento Semilla was the big surprise of the presidential elections last Sunday, when he slipped into the second round of elections, where he will face the former first lady, Sandra Torres Casanova.
Still overwhelmed by the joy of the results, Arévalo de León affirmed that “the main challenge” if he wins the country’s Presidency will be “to restore the confidence of Guatemalans through a Government that practices transparency and dialogue.”
Arévalo de León and Semilla obtained 11.8 percent of the 5.4 million votes cast in the elections. Only behind Torres Casanova, who added 15.7 percent.
Polls, however, put him in eighth or ninth place, with less than 3 percent voting intention.
The rise of Bernardo Arévalo de León
The current representative of Semilla does not deny that its growth was unexpected by many, but in his opinion, Guatemalans responded at the polls to his call to “stop the cooptation of State institutions” that has grown in recent years, based on to the opinion of experts.
“The rejection of the corrupt political system is massive, but it was withdrawn in an attitude of hopelessness and the corrupt were betting on the apathy of the people,” explained the 64-year-old candidate, whose party was born out of anti-corruption demonstrations in 2015.
On the back of Arévalo de León rests the legacy of his father, Juan José Arévalo Bermejo, who ruled between 1945 and 1951 with great social advances for the population, giving way to a democratic government for the first time after decades of military dictatorships.
Youth: transcendental pillar
“I am convinced that the mobilization of youth was key (to win), in the range of people between 20 and 35 years of age. The youth is the one who regained hope to recover the democracy of the country”, indicated Arévalo de León.
During Sunday’s election, the Seed Movement also managed to win 23 seats in Congress. Among its new deputies are six openly feminist women along with some young professionals, who are the basis of the engine of the progressive party.
“We knew that the polls were wrong, because despite the fact that they put us very low, in the markets, squares and streets we received an image of fed up with traditional politicians,” the academic pointed out.
Recover justice and democracy
Arévalo de León thinks that in order to attack the cooptation system that reigns in Guatemala, he will take advice from people who have had to flee into exile. “Because they have stood up to corruption from the judicial function or from the press.”
According to various sources, more than 50 people, including journalists, high-risk judges, and prosecutors, have had to flee Guatemala in recent years because of their role in the fight against corruption, while others, such as journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, have been imprisoned. ,
“We have an exile of judges and prosecutors who have been criminalized. We must stop the persecution policy that operates in the country,” added Arévalo de León.
The candidate says that winning the presidency will be “respectful of the division of powers”, but that he will invite the resignation of the Attorney General of the Public Ministry (MP, Prosecutor’s Office), Consuelo Porras, who in 2021 was sanctioned by the United States for hindering the fight against corruption.
“The most important thing,” according to Arévalo, is to “resolve the historical debts” of Guatemala “in malnutrition, poverty and infrastructure” to serve “the most disadvantaged.”
However, this is impossible if “what is most urgent” is not resolved first, that is, “state cooptation”.
No alliances with the old politics
As a deputy since 2020, Arévalo de León has witnessed the management of Congress by the official bench and its partner political parties.
Given this context, the candidate assures that in his government he will not collaborate or make alliances with “corrupt, criminal, violent, authoritarian” actors of traditional Guatemalan politics.
“A president committed to the fight against corruption will come to the government and we are not going to put the budget in a piñata tied to spurious businesses,” he specified, referring to traditional politics.
In the first electoral round, held last Sunday, almost a million Guatemalans voted null. In the opinion of Arévalo de León, this is a reflection of “the rejection of the corrupt system.”
The Presidency of Guatemala for the period 2024-2028 will be defined on August 20 when the second round of elections is held. With 9.3 million people empowered to cast their vote in favor of Torres Casanova or Arévalo de León.