In a race clouded by worries of a democratic backslide, anti-corruption candidate Bernardo Arévalo of the left-leaning Movimiento Semilla party appears to have won Guatemala’s presidential election on Sunday. He defeated former first lady Sandra Torres.
Arévalo claimed at a press conference shortly after unofficial election results showed he had won a majority that the people had “spoken loudly.”
“Enough of so much corruption,” the populace is screaming at us, he continued. “This is a demonstration of the change of thought that we are witnessing in Guatemala. “Guatemalans today have hope, and we are commemorating the restoration of our nation’s sense of hope on the streets.”
He noted that the presidents of Mexico and El Salvador, as well as President Alejandro Giammattei, had already called to congratulate him on his victory.
According to official figures from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Arévalo received 59.1% of the vote against Torres’ 36.1% after more than 95% of the ballots had been counted.
It’s a surprise victory for the former diplomat who rekindled the campaign after the state disqualified opposition candidates for speaking out against corruption, raising concerns from rights organisations and Western allies.
“Corruption is a phenomena that has crept into society’s many institutions and has invaded a variety of settings. “Recovering those spaces will be our task,” Arévalo stated on Sunday.
As it became clear that Arévalo had won by a wide majority on Sunday night, the president of the electoral tribunal, Irma Palencia, declared during a press conference that “today, the people voice’s spoke.”
“Long live Guatemala!” was written by Arévalo in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Alejandro Giammattei, the president of Guatemala, congratulated Arévalo on his victory and promised to “extend the invitation to start the ordered transition the day after the results are official.”
With his pledges to reduce crime and corruption, combat malnutrition, and spur prosperity in a nation with one of the highest levels of inequality in the region, the center-left politician Arévalo tapped into enormous public anger.
Arévalo, whose father was the nation’s first democratically elected president, won’t have an easy time achieving those aims because Congress is expected to be dominated by establishment parties, including Torres’ Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza.
Analysts warn that there might also be attempts to thwart Arévalo’s victory, citing efforts by state actors to have him disqualified following his unexpected second place performance in the first round of voting in June.
Rafael Curruchiche, the head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity and a member on the Engel List of “corrupt and undemocratic actors,” asked a Guatemalan court to suspend his Movimiento Semilla party.
Arévalo has refuted the accusation that Movimiento Semilla forged citizens’ signatures, which Curruchiche claimed was the subject of their investigation.
In recent years, thousands of Guatemalans have migrated to the United States as a result of increased kleptocracy, graft, and a weakened rule of law, according to regional experts. His victory comes amid this trend.
After the dissolution of the CICIG anti-corruption commission in 2019, which rights organisations claim contributed to hundreds of convictions, the situation reportedly got worse.
Many of the commission-related prosecutors and judges who were detained and subjected to investigations have now left the country. High levels of poverty and malnutrition have been present in the succeeding years.
Media professionals who have fought corruption in their reports have also seen legal repercussions. José Rubén Zamora, a well-known journalist from Guatemala, was sentenced to six years in prison this year for money laundering in what the ruling press organisations called an assault on free expression.