{"id":66066,"date":"2015-11-09T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T12:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=66066"},"modified":"2015-11-05T15:23:33","modified_gmt":"2015-11-05T15:23:33","slug":"a-military-backed-comedian-will-be-guatemalas-next-president-activists-arent-laughing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/11\/a-military-backed-comedian-will-be-guatemalas-next-president-activists-arent-laughing\/","title":{"rendered":"A Military-Backed Comedian Will Be Guatemala\u2019s Next President – Activists Aren\u2019t Laughing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid rising violence against human rights defenders, Guatemalan activists are counting on an emboldened civil society to take on their next president.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"(Photo:<\/a>

(Photo: hrvargas \/ Flickr)<\/p><\/div>\n

30 Oct 2015 – <\/em>Riding a wave of anti-establishment sentiment, Jimmy Morales \u2014 a comedian with no political experience and backed by military hard-liners \u2014 has been elected Guatemala\u2019s next president.<\/p>\n

Morales saw his popularity surge amid a series of corruption scandals that led to mass citizen protests<\/a>, the arrest of several high-level government officials, and the resignation of former president Otto P\u00e9rez Molina<\/a> this September. Capitalizing on his reputation as a political outsider, Morales achieved an unexpected first-round win in September before defeating former first lady Sandra Torres in the October 25 runoff election.<\/p>\n

Many supporters of Molina\u2019s ouster had supported Torres<\/a> over the military-backed Morales \u2014 albeit reluctantly, since she\u2019d faced past corruption allegations herself.<\/p>\n

Morales, like his opponent, promised efforts to promote transparency and root out corruption. But he\u2019s drawn criticism for his vague policies, his comedy act\u2019s reliance on racist, sexist, and homophobic tropes<\/a>, and the fact that some of his backers \u2014 including the founders of his political party, the National Convergence Front (FCN) \u2014 are conservative members of the military linked to war crimes from the country\u2019s three-decade civil conflict.<\/p>\n

Though some Guatemalans are cautiously optimistic about the future, many remain skeptical that Morales will be able to pull the country out of its current political turmoil. \u201cNothing is going to change,\u201d one voter said via Twitter<\/a> \u2014 even as she cast her ballot.<\/p>\n

A Grim Backdrop<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though it was corruption that ultimately felled P\u00e9rez Molina, the uprising against him took place amid a broader crackdown<\/a> on human rights defenders of all stripes \u2014 including human rights lawyers, journalists, labor activists, and indigenous groups resisting large-scale development projects.<\/p>\n

In Washington, members of Guatemala\u2019s Human Rights Convergence and other civil society organizations recently participated in hearings at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and met with U.S. government officials to discuss these challenges.<\/p>\n

In back-to-back hearings, petitioners highlighted the defamation and harassment of lawyers and expert witnesses in the ongoing genocide case against former Guatemalan leader Efrain R\u00edos Montt. P\u00e9rez Molina, a former military commander who vociferously denied that any genocide had taken place, was himself implicated in atrocities against indigenous Guatemalans in testimony that emerged during the trial.<\/p>\n

In another hearing, lawyers and community leaders emphasized the precarious and vulnerable situation of communities surrounded by African Palm production, where residents suffer harassment from palm oil companies, contamination of their water supply, and other environmental problems.<\/p>\n

On September 18, indigenous activist Rigoberto Lima Choc was assassinated outside a local courthouse in the northern town of Sayaxch\u00e9. Lima was one of the first to publicly denounce the actions of the palm company REPSA for its alleged involvement in the contamination of the La Pasi\u00f3n River.<\/p>\n

Just weeks later, Alex Reynoso \u2014 an environmental activist who\u2019s organized against a Tahoe Resources silver mine in southern Guatemala \u2014 survived a second assassination attempt. An earlier attempt last year claimed the life of his daughter, Topacio Reyes.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>

A demonstrator shouts during protests around general elections in Guatemala City. (AP Photo \/ Moises Castillo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Many human rights organizations view these attacks as part of an ongoing pattern of repression against land rights defenders, as well as a test for the transitional government \u2014 one the administration has failed. They accuse the government of dispatching security forces to protect transnational corporations \u2014 and suppress any resistance to corporate misconduct \u2014 while failing to properly respond to attacks against community leaders.<\/p>\n

In a separate hearing on extractive industries, Commissioner Rose-Marie Antoine called the violence against indigenous activists resisting their own displacement a \u201ctotal disgrace for democracies in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

In all these cases, the Guatemalan government has categorically denied any responsibility or wrongdoing. \u201cWe\u2019re sorry to see that the state maintains its same position,\u201d said Center for Human Rights Legal Action Director Juan Francisco Soto, \u201ceven though we now have a new president, and new appointed officials in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe People Have Changed\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the past few months, many Guatemalans have lauded the transformative power of citizen protests, and some outlets called the country a leader in a new \u201canti-corruption spring<\/a>.\u201d But failed electoral reforms and ongoing land rights conflicts have prompted some to ask: Has anything really <\/em>changed in Guatemala?<\/p>\n

Responding to that question at a panel discussion in DC, Daniel Pascual from the Committee for Campesino Unity answered: \u201cThe people<\/em> have changed. They have lost their fear of protest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Civil society has been armed with new allies, added Pascual, and the country\u2019s \u201csocial awakening\u201d has given rise to a more informed and vigilant citizenry. With more people calling for justice, it will be ever more challenging for public officials not to act on behalf of the people.<\/p>\n

Still, the vast majority of these urgent concerns \u2014 the ongoing militarization of public security, high rates of impunity, deep-rooted corruption, and increased violence against environmental activists, among a collapsing health care system and other issues \u2014 are issues President-elect Morales has barely mentioned. To date, he\u2019s shared no plan or inclination to address them.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither Morales nor Torres represent the change we need,\u201d said Iduvina Hern\u00e1ndez. \u201cBut the social movements we\u2019re experiencing may mean that someday we\u2019ll have different options \u2014 candidates who really represent the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

______________________________<\/p>\n

Lindsay Bigda is a communications associate for the Guatemala Human Rights Commission.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 thenation.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amid rising violence against human rights defenders, Guatemalan activists are counting on an emboldened civil society to take on their next president. Riding a wave of anti-establishment sentiment, Jimmy Morales \u2014 a comedian with no political experience and backed by military hard-liners \u2014 has been elected Guatemala\u2019s next president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latin-america-and-the-caribbean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}