Could Thelma Cabrera Become Guatemala’s Evo Morales?
A Maya Mam woman is seeking to organize the country’s indigenous people into a mass political force.
In Guatemala’s last presidential elections, in 2019, Thelma Cabrera gave the Guatemalan political establishment a shock. As the candidate for the Movimiento para la Liberación de los Pueblos party (MLP), a savvy social media campaign helped her earn an unexpected 10% of the vote. She finished fourth and missed the runoff, but placed herself at the forefront of indigenous politics in the country. It was the most successful presidential run by an indigenous person in Guatemala’s modern history – the only other was by Nobel Prizewinner Rigoberta Menchu in 2007, who won 3% of the...
Read this article on the Americas Quarterly website. | Subscribe to AQ.
