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‘Primavera Democrática’: A Conversation with President-Elect Bernardo Arévalo of Guatemala
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Overview
In a surprising landslide victory in August, Bernardo Arévalo, an anti-corruption campaigner who had polled in single digits before the election, won Guatemala’s second-round presidential contest with 58% of the vote.
The election was not expected to produce major changes in Guatemala. After all, the authorities had disqualified three leading candidates seen as challengers to the status quo. Even now, elite opposition is threatening to impede the presidential transition. The attorney general–who has been sanctioned by the United States for alleged corruption–is attempting to suspend Arévalo’s Semilla Party. That is part of a pattern of legal harassment of anti-corruption champions that has chased into exile independent judges and prosecutors.
On Tuesday, October 3, 2023, the Wilson Center’s Latin America Program hosted a conversation with President-Elect Arévalo on how he is navigating the presidential transition, the challenges of corruption and organized crime in Guatemala, his proposals to fight poverty and improve governance, and his strategy for overcoming obstacles to his agenda, including a divided Congress and resistance from powerful economic interests.
Selected Quotes
Bernardo Arévalo
What I see now is what looks like a coup in slow motion.”
An Arévalo administration’s highest priority would put an end to the influence that corrupt and illicit networks have for more than a decade exerted on key state institutions and governmental agencies, including those responsible for the administration of justice.”
We have seen setbacks to democracy not just in Guatemala but around the world, as autocratic regimes are gaining ground and respect for human rights and civil liberties is being eroded gradually and systematically.”
The international presence has been extremely useful. Had it not been for the presence of international observers from the OAS and the EU, the internal actors acting against democracy would have been much more emboldened.”
Introduction
Hosted By
Latin America Program
The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action. Read more
Latin America Program
The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action. Read more
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