To the dismay of the right-wing elites who have long controlled that nation, officials in the Biden administration are working arduously to stop the Guatemalan government, one of their few allies in Central America, from overturning election results that will place a leftist in next week’s presidential runoff.
By making repeated phone calls, personal appearances, public denunciations, and sanctions against important individuals, including Guatemala’s attorney general, US officials are reminding the nation’s strong military, political, and commercial forces of the risk of undermining democracy.
Political Tensions Rise After Guatemala’s Election
Sandra Torres, a conservative former first lady favored by the establishment, won the most votes in a June 25 election, and Bernardo Arévalo, a left-of-center politician who ran against corruption and shocked the nation by coming in a close second, will face off for the title of Guatemala’s next president on Sunday.
The ruling class in the government and military sprang into action as soon as those results were known, making multiple attempts to disqualify Arévalo from the runoff.
Right-wing in Guatemala attempted to have Arévalo’s political party declared invalid and ordered police to search his headquarters. They have postponed certification of the June 25 results while threatening legal action to contest Arévalo’s candidacy eligibility.
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Fraud Claims Cast Doubt on Democracy
Unfounded allegations of election fraud were made by a number of losing political parties, including the one of President Alejandro Giammattei and the daughter of a military dictator found guilty of genocide.
The sustainability of democratic governance is in question, according to many seasoned Latin American experts. Guatemala is at a crossroads at a time when Honduras teeters on the precipice, El Salvador is abandoning democracy, and Nicaragua’s rule of law has long since disappeared.
According to observers, the rise of yet another tyrant in the region would be embarrassing for the Biden administration, thus it is crucial for the US to demonstrate that it still has influence in the Western Hemisphere despite Chinese advances.
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