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Corruption debate cast long shadow over Guatemala elections
from BBC MONITOR 30
Guatemala's politics and elections have long been plagued by allegations of corruption, and the run-up to the country's 25 June presidential and parliamentary elections proved no exception, Latin American specialist Blaire Toedte writes.
Guatemala’s election authority, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) reported on 26 June that, with more than 90 per cent of the votes counted, former First Lady Sandra Torres and a left-leaning candidate, Bernardo Arevalo, would compete in the 20 August run-off election. Torres and Arevalo received 15.14 per cent and 12.20 per cent of the vote respectively
The theme of corruption heavily permeated the debate in Guatemalan media and social media coverage of the vote and its over 20 presidential candidates. Several prominent contenders were barred from standing earlier in the race by electoral and judicial authorities, in decisions widely viewed by critics as politically-motivated.
This, and corruption accusations being exchanged between the main election front-runners, were seen by observers as badly undermining voters' confidence in the election and in Guatemala's democracy.
The Spanish term “pacto de corruptos” (pact of the corrupt) – widely understood in Guatemala to refer to a wealthy ruling political and business elite linked to the Armed Forces and seeking to maintain control of the government – has become both a warning shout and a rallying cry for those seeking to change the way Guatemala is governed. It has figured constantly, with notable spikes, in the media and social media debate of the last few months ahead of the 25 June ballot.
Political analysts cited by the media have described a “deterioration” in the country's democratic institutions in recent years, especially following the 2019 end of operations of a UN-backed anti-corruption entity, Cicig (International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala), whose mandate was not renewed in 2018 by then President Jimmy Morales.
Morales himself was under investigation by Cicig, whose disbanding was seen hastening Guatemala's slide to being a “fragile democracy”, news website Plaza Public reported on 11 June.
Candidates for change?
The three candidates who led the polls for the 25 June vote – viewed as highly likely to go to a deciding second round on 20 August – faced considerable critical scrutiny in the media, with commentators questioning whether they would bring real change.
Three-time presidential contender Sandra Torres, representing the National Unity for Hope (UNE) party, is a former First Lady who has faced accusations of illicit electoral financing.
Zury Rios, of the VALOR-Unionista coalition, is the daughter of late Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt who in 2013 was convicted of committing genocide against the Mayan Ixil people in the 1980s. Rightwinger Rios campaigned on a tough law-and-order agenda.
Former diplomat and UN official Edmond Mulet ran on a “new start” platform, but some media outlets including Plaza Publica also linked him to Guatemala's “old politics”.
Pessimism and disillusionment about the vote, and about the prospects for tackling the country's corruption problem, visibly coloured the media coverage.
“There are no reasons to trust that the elections in June will be an opportunity to improve the practices of government in Guatemala,” columnist Juan Luis Font commented on news website Con Criterio at the end of January, before full campaigning had even started.
“There is not the slightest doubt that this 2023 electoral process has been the most vitiated and dirty, with a difference, of all those that there has been in Guatemala since the 1985 Constitution [restoring democracy] was promulgated,” columnist Emilio Matta wrote in leading daily La Hora on 14 June, in an opinion piece entitled “Corruption and empty proposals”.
Bernardo Arevalo of the Movimiento Semilla, the surprise second place candidate, did not feature heavily in Guatemalan media’s coverage of corruption allegations, primarily due to his low polling numbers ahead of the vote.
“Corruption won, Guatemala lost”
For many observers, faith in the elections' integrity was already undermined well before any votes were cast, when Guatemala's TSE electoral authority suspended in mid-May the candidacy of businessman and political outsider Carlos Pineda, alleging irregularities in his nomination process. Pineda, who had stood for his Citizens' Prosperity party as an anti-graft campaigner, had been topping opinion polls.
Guatemala's Constitutional Court confirmed Pineda's suspension on 26 May, leading many to suspect that the country's own judicial system was tainted and tipping the election scales.
“Corruption won, Guatemala lost” was the trenchant comment tweeted by Pineda when news of his suspension was confirmed.
Others agreed. Guatemalan former anti-corruption prosecutor Francisco Sandoval, who lives in exile in the US after being sacked in 2021, was quoted in US Spanish language media on 30 May as saying conditions did not exist for fair elections in Guatemala, due to the alleged political meddling and bias. Local and international pro-democracy watchdogs expressed similar opinions.
A level playing field?
They pointed to the disqualification even earlier in the election process of the candidacies of leftist indigenous Mayan leader Thelma Cabrera and former human rights ombudsman Jordan Rodas, another strong anticorruption voice. These presidential and vice-presidential candidates, both critics of the Giammattei government, had been bidding to stand for the leftwing Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP).
Rodas told Spanish newspaper El Pais in early February that his and Cabrera's bans were “an arbitrary decision, based on illegality”. He said he was the object of what he called a “vendetta” by “Guatemala's most conservative sectors” against him for his past antigraft denunciations.
El Pais saw “institutional deterioration and corruption” marking the Guatemalan electoral process.
Also barred from running was rightwing candidate Roberto Arzu, who was standing for the Podemos party and is the son of ex-President Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen.
“We’re seeing a clear veto from the executive branch and certain political groups,” Guatemalan constitutional lawyer Alejandro Balsells told the English language edition of El Salvador-based Central American investigative newspaper El Faro on 28 March.
In another blow to confidence in Guatemala's judiciary and public authorities, prominent Guatemalan journalist and anti-corruption critic Jose Ruben Zamora was sentenced on 14 June to six years in jail on money laundering charges in a case whose legal basis was widely questioned by press freedom watchdogs and pro-democracy groups. The InterAmerican Press Association (IAPA) issued a statement criticising a “lack of independence” in the Guatemalan justice system.
Voter apathy?
Social media traffic about the election also reflected public disenchantment with the vote and what it offered ordinary Guatemalans, raising the possibility of high voter abstention on 25 June.
According to data provided by the TSE election authority, the number of “null votes” tallied during the 25 June election exceeded 17 per cent and blank votes contributed an additional 7 per cent, showing voter apathy and rejection of the system.
