Perez "Iron Fist" Election Pledge May Deepen Guatemala Drug War
Perez "Iron Fist" Election Pledge May Deepen Guatemala Drug War
"It’s a mark of utter failure by Guatemala’s institutions that people are seriously talking about bringing the military back," says AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth.
Former General Otto Perez Molina is likely to win Guatemala’s presidency on a pledge to wield an “iron fist” against drug cartels, a policy that may escalate Mexican-style violence in the Central American nation.
Polls show Perez leading Congressman Manuel Baldizon by about 10 percentage points before the Nov. 6 runoff vote, with more than 80 percent supporting a hard-line stance on crime. Perez won the first round on Sept. 11 with 36 percent of the vote, while Baldizon had 23 percent...
...“This is a strategy born of desperation” and may backfire, said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas in Washington, who was part the U.S. delegation that worked with Perez to reduce the size of the armed forces after the 1996 peace accords. “It’s a mark of utter failure by Guatemala’s institutions that people are seriously talking about bringing the military back.”
