Guatemala's Military Man, Nicaragua's Revolutionary
Guatemala's Military Man, Nicaragua's Revolutionary
A preview article from Americas Quarterly Winter 2012 issue discusses the recent elections in Guatemala and Nicaragua, where chose two competing symbols of their pasts to address modern socioeconomic and security challenges. How will they fare?
This is a preview article from the Winter 2012 issue of Americas Quarterly to be released on January 26, 2012.
Guatemala and Nicaragua, two Central American nations grappling with uncertain futures, chose starkly different paths in the November 2011 elections. Their presidents, both inaugurated in mid-January, will face challenges—some of their own doing—in an unstable region with scant resources, fragile public institutions, and the constant threat of organized crime.
Guatemala swore in a hardline former army general as president, the first time that a former military officer has taken power since the end of military rule in 1986. Otto Pérez Molina, 61, of the conservative Partido Patriota (PP), battled leftist guerillas during a 36-year civil war and skated to victory (winning by over 7 percentage points) in a runoff election against Manuel Baldizón of the Libertad Democrática Renovada (LIDER) party. Pérez Molina’s victory represents a swing to the Right after his soft-spoken predecessor—Álvaro Colom, who defeated Pérez Molina in the 2007 election runoff—served as Guatemala’s first left-leaning president since 1954. (Guatemala’s constitution does not allow for reelection.)
Nicaraguans reelected Daniel Ortega of the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN) for a second consecutive and third overall term. Ortega, a socialist revolutionary who changed the constitution to permit reelection, has won over voters with a populist message to help the poor. He was helped by a decidedly uneven electoral playing field in which state-owned and pro-government media gave the president overwhelming coverage and state social programs were portrayed as party patronage. Ortega’s campaign and presidency have been punctuated by Marxist slogans and discourse reminiscent of Fidel Castro in Cuba and Hugo Chávez in Venezuela—two leaders that Ortega honored in his victory speech. Over the next five years, Nicaraguans can expect more of the same.
Click here to read the article at www.AmericasQuarterly.org.
Mike McDonald is a stringer for Reuters and has covered general news in Central America for three years, including presidential elections in Costa Rica, Guatemala and the coup in Honduras.
