Deadly election campaign
In guatemala, dozens of candidates for political office have been murdered since the beginning of may
The symbolism of the act leaves little room for interpretation: when the body of mayoral candidate carlos de leon bravo was found in the trunk of a car on the first weekend of august, it was wrapped in the flag of the left party meeting for guatemala. The murder of leon bravo continues a series of apparently politically motivated murders during guatemala’s current election campaign. Since the start of the campaign on 2. According to non-governmental organizations, more than 50 candidates have lost their lives in the last few months.
The violence has primarily affected the left and the moderate left. The most promising candidate, alvaro colom of the social democratic national unity of hope (UNE), alone has lost 17 candidates from his grouping in recent months. But also affected is the fledgling party of nobel peace prize laureate rigoberta menchú, meeting for guatemala (EG). In a fire attack on the house of EC candidate olga lucas a few days ago, both of her children were wounded.
Languages in guatemala
The current election campaign is the most violent since parliamentary democracy was re-established in the central american country in 1986, observers say. The country’s right-wing president, oscar berger, who is still in office, does not share this opinion. It runs "everything normal", he declared last week in blatant disregard for reality.
Ballot box for some, urns for others
On 9. September is the sixth election in guatemala since the last military dictatorship ended in 1985. 14 presidential candidates will then face the 5.9 million eligible voters. For the first time, nobel peace prize winner rigoberta menchú is participating in the vote. She is in fourth place with a predicted 5.5 percent of the vote. In addition, 158 members of the national parliament and 332 mayors will be newly elected. Most promising candidate for president is colom, followed by ultra-right ex-military otto perez molina. In third place is alejandro giammattei, of the current ruling rough national alliance. However, according to previous polls, neither of the two leading candidates will achieve the necessary absolute majority. A runoff election on 4. November is likely.
Violence, directed primarily against representatives of the left, is the dominant theme in guatemalan domestic politics these weeks. The non-governmental organization mirador electoral describes the election campaign as one of the bloodiest in the country’s recent history, citing statistics on threats and attacks as proof. Although the numbers are hard to deny, prasident berger does not acknowledge the situation. Supported by the organization of american states. While she expressed concern last week about a newly established decentralized system of polling stations that needed better explanation. But whether the apparent violence against public officials is politically motivated cannot be conclusively judged, the regional organization said.
Legacy of the civil war
The political violence is not a new phenomenon that appeared only before the vote in early september. In 1996, a 46-year civil war in guatemala was formally ended with the signing of the peace accords. But the terror continues to this day. The current series of attacks is also blamed on paramilitary structures whose roots go back to the war. What is devastating is the alliance that these political-military structures have entered into with the drug mafia. Ten years after the formal return of peace to guatemala, the country is threatened by a greater danger than it was in the days of open armed conflict. As in colombia, guatemala could fall victim to criminal structures whose military clout is used politically.
This threat is fueled by the continuity of personnel. The candidate of the ultra-right patriotic party, perez molina, had begun his formerly military career with the outbreak of the civil war in the mid-1960s. Today, he is considered to be one of the people responsible for the "scorched earth policy", in which entire villages were razed to the ground in the fight against leftist guerrillas. When a dispute arose in the militar in the first half of the 1990s, the hardliner sided with the so-called institutionalists. They advocated an orderly exit from the armed conflict. Opposing them was the "brotherhood", a coalition of high-ranking militaries that refused to negotiate with the guerrillas. With the peace agreement, the institutionalists were considered to have been mitigated – a judgment that is becoming less and less tenable. In the current election campaign, perez molina is once again standing for a policy of "hard hand".
The high death toll in guatemala’s election campaign not only demonstrates the continuity of political violence. It also calls into question the regional peace policy. When the presidents of several central american countries met in costa rica during the second week of august to commemorate the esquipulas peace plan twenty years ago, the participants praised one another. The initiative led by the current president of costa rica, oscar arias, succeeded in finding a way out of the wars. No mention was made of the personal and institutional continuity or the impunity that human rights organizations repeatedly deplore. Perez molina, for example, has never faced accusations of being involved in massacres as a military officer in guatemala.
