The following article was published by Frontera Dispatch on August 22, 2023 by Mayte Elizalde, Jesús de la Torre, Luke Monnich, Sofia Gomez and Paola Hernanadez.
Greetings from Ciudad de Guatemala, where our dispatcher Jesús de la Torre is co-leading a Root Causes Initiative delegation of faith-leaders! This past Sunday, Guatemala experienced one of its most important days in decades. The Guatemalan people gave an example of courage, dignity and resistance by choosing Bernardo Arévalo to become their next president for an overwhelming majority -58% of the votes against 37% of his opponent, Sandra Torres.
As people marched to polling stations peacefully, many remembered Arévalo’s dad, a president who ran deep democratic and social reforms during the 1940s that are still felt in the country. That period, known as “The Spring”, has motivated what many call now “A New Spring.”
Arévalo and his Semilla (“Seed”) Movement offered deep structural changes, combat corruption, and promote measures to tackle the conditions forcing people to migrate, especially extreme inequality in the richest country of Central America but with 54% of the population under poverty. Guatemalans understand that Arévalo won’t be able to change everything, but they see in him a chance to stop corruption, human rights violations and the erosion of democracy in the country.
Despite international leaders quickly recognizing Arévalo’s victory, including president Biden, Torres hasn’t conceded the elections yet. Moreover, grassroots leaders fear that judicial persecution and threats against Semilla and the elected candidates increase until they are sworn next January. International solidarity will be vital to defend democracy in Guatemala.
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