{"id":62144,"date":"2024-01-17T14:13:02","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T22:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=62144"},"modified":"2024-01-17T14:13:02","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T22:13:02","slug":"high-hopes-as-guatemalans-celebrate-new-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=62144","title":{"rendered":"High Hopes as Guatemalans Celebrate New President"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
By<\/span>Mary Jo McConahay<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/i>
\n
\n

In a region where autocracy is rising, Bernardo Arevalo\u2019s ascension in Guatemala this week is being seen as a blow for democracy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"\"
Incoming Guatemalan President Bernardo Ar\u00e9valo waves to supporters from the National Palace on his inauguration day in Guatemala City, early Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. (AP Photo\/Moises Castillo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

GUATEMALA CITY \u2014 Residents of this largest city in Central America are waking up this week with hope in their new president, Bernardo Ar\u00e8valo, who took office in the pre-dawn hours Jan. 15 after a day of tension when his political enemies made last ditch efforts to delay the inauguration.<\/p>\n

In a region where autocracy is rising, Arevalo\u2019s ascension in Guatemala is being seen as a blow for democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came in like a fish under water, nobody expected him,\u201d said Marta Cuevas, 74, a tortilla-maker and mother of four whose face wore a look of glee as she watched Ar\u00e8valo take command of the armed forces in an open-air plaza later that morning.<\/p>\n

Ar\u00e8valo, a 65-year old academic and diplomat, won a surprise landslide victory in August, but weathered assassination plots, exiles and arrests of allies, and legal maneuvers by judicial authorities until finally being sworn in, before an audience of heads of state and other official guests forced to cool their heels for nine long hours when no-one knew whether Congress members in a boisterous session across town would agree to validate the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocracy has overcome its hardest test,\u201d read a local newspaper headline.<\/p>\n

A turning of the page<\/h2>\n

Change was quickly evident. The ceremony Cuevas and others witnessed would once have been unthinkable. In a purposefully public display, hundreds of military forces in unformed ranks, including mounted cadets, naval officers, and camouflage-clad army special forces called Kaibiles, a unit responsible for some of the most egregious massacres in Guatemala\u2019s civil war (ended 1996), pledged obedience to the civilian, democratically elected president, who took command with a discourse emphasizing human rights and adherence to the constitution.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Guatemalans carried flags representing \u201cThe Four Peoples\u201d of Guatemala: Maya, Garifuna, Xinca, and ladinos in celebration of the inauguration of Bernardo Ar\u00e9valo. (Credit: Mary Jo McConahay)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

New Minister of Defense Major General Henry Saenz Ramos committed the military\u2019s \u201csubordination and respect\u201d to elected officials and spoke to the \u201cdignity of the person.\u201d A flyover of fixed wing aircraft and helicopters tipped its wings over the plaza, which once housed the presidential palace. The last time many in the crowd had seen that was during coups.<\/p>\n

Arevalo\u2019s father, Juan Jose Arevalo (d. 1990), was the country\u2019s first democratically elected president, inaugurating what is sometimes called the \u201cTen Years of Spring,\u201d an era of progressive reforms that ended in 1954 with a CIA-sponsored coup that ushered in decades of government led by, or beholden to, the military.\u00a0The younger Ar\u00e8valo, with academic degrees in philosophy and sociology, worked for years in Geneva on projects that provided counsel to states in transition to democracy, and is considered well prepared for working with the military.<\/p>\n

\u2018An end to corruption\u2019<\/h2>\n

In numerous interviews about what they wanted from the new administration, Maya indigenous Guatemalans, who make up nearly half the population, spoke of an \u201cend to corruption and delinquency,\u201d better access to schools, respect for the territories where they lived and their natural resources, including woods and water.<\/p>\n

Amparo Conseulo, 72, of San Andres Ixtahuatan, in the country\u2019s far west, led her expectations with a reduction in the cost of the \u201ccanasta basica<\/em>,\u201d or basic \u201cbasket\u201d of food items such as beans and rice.\u00a0\u201cWe want electricity, water, decent houses, work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Guatemalans celebrating the inauguration of Bernardo Ar\u00e9valo. (Credit: Mary Jo McConahay)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Consuelo and other women from their town travelled 11 hours to witness Ar\u00e8valo\u2019s address to supporters in the central Plaza of the Constitution where, because of delays by Congress, they waited until 3 a.m. to see the new president who came in person to thank them.<\/p>\n

Consuelo had little doubt about where opposition to Arevalo would continue to come from\u2014the country\u2019s business elite and Justice Ministry officials who attempted to block him from taking office.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst he has to thank God, then deal with CACIF,\u201d she said, the lobby that represents the country\u2019s most powerful businesses, the\u00a0Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial, and Financial Associations. He had to \u201celiminate\u201d functionaries on the take, she said, \u201cbeginning with the judicial organisms.\u201d<\/p>\n

By law Arevalo cannot fire Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who oversaw opposition to the election results in the courts, but on day one of his presidency he asked for her resignation.<\/p>\n

Indigenous leadership<\/h2>\n

The months-long, grueling show of resistance to official attempts to reverse election results was led by indigenous authorities, who caused roads to be blocked, kept up a constant flow of informational meetings and communiqu\u00e9s and organized an extraordinary 106-day peaceful siege of the Justice Ministry to pressure for respect for the vote.<\/p>\n

Maya from far-flung communities took turns sleeping on the sidewalks, displaying banners, providing food, and holding religious ceremonies by their spiritual guides. They attended outdoor mass given by the highest Catholic prelate in this Catholic country, Cardinal Alvaro Ramazzini, who is close to Pope Francis. Through it all the indigenous resisters carried not the flag of Arevalo\u2019s Semilla political party, but the blue and white national banner.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Indigenous groups from around the country led the months-long push against efforts to derail Ar\u00e9valo\u2019s election. Many traveled long distances to attend the inauguration. (Credit: Mary Jo McConahay)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not Arevalo they are for, it\u2019s democracy,\u201d said Santiago Bastos, a long-time scholar of Guatemalan ethnicities now at the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology in Guadalajara. Bastos was observing inauguration week events.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, in the uncertain months between the election and inauguration Arevalo continually recognized the key role of the indigenous in protecting the vote that made him president. He often used the term \u201cThe Four Peoples\u201d when speaking of Guatemalans, referring to distinct groups that make up the Guatemalan population \u2013 Maya, Garifuna, Xinca, and the ladinos or mostly white people who have run the country since the 16th<\/sup>\u00a0century Spanish conquest.<\/p>\n

Arevalo\u2019s first stop after inauguration in the National Theater, was to visit the Maya keeping vigil outside the ministry, in the middle of the night, and the next day he attended a Maya religious ceremony at Kaminal Juyu, an ancient site at the edge of the capital.<\/p>\n

He has named dozens of Maya administrative ministerial personnel and a member of his cabinet, Labor Minister Miriam Roquel, is Maya.<\/p>\n

Still, Ar\u00e9valo is already receiving some criticism for not naming more Maya now to highly visible positions, although he has pledged to do so, as he said in his appearance in the public plaza after the inauguration, \u201cto make them participants in making the decisions, recognizing them and taking in their wisdom\u2026No more discrimination, no more racism.\u201d<\/p>\n

High expectations<\/h2>\n

Arevalo\u2019s concerns and constituencies are many, and he will have to move and fund them without support of a majority in Congress. He immediately recognized responsibility to Guatemalan migrants \u2013 55,000 were deported from the United States in 2023, a 36 percent increase over the year before, but said migration must be recognized as a \u201cglobal\u201d issue demanding international solutions.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francisco Marcial, 58, a member of the Afro-descendent Garifuna community, was among those celebrating Ar\u00e9valos inauguration. (Credit: Mary Jo McConahay)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Guatemala would do its part, he said, caring compassionately for the thousands of Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Hondurans and Venezuelans, for instance, who appear on their way to the United States \u2013 some can be seen begging on the streets.<\/p>\n

A leader of one of the many cultural groups who came to the capital to celebrate with the crowds, Francisco Marcial, 58, a Garifuna professional musician, said that with Ar\u00e9valo, \u201cWe hope in God to open the doors to decentralize government operations\u201d to bring attention to towns like his, Livingston, on the Caribbean coast, whose residents are of African descent, and to include their history, as the Maya are included, in the national school curriculum.<\/p>\n

Ar\u00e9valo, who emphasizes women\u2019s rights, will preside over the country\u2019s first gender-balanced presidential cabinet, and in the military ceremony in the plaza pledged to name the army\u2019s first female brigadier general.<\/p>\n

But for some advocates that is not enough.<\/p>\n

Angela Mariela Romero, 46, legal representative of Trans Queens of the Night, a transgender support group that has observer status at the Organization of American States, has survived four assassination attempts and wants the new president to do something to confront attacks against LGBTQ+ persons. She said that \u201cwe want a law on gender identity\u201d passed in Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe expectation of the citizenry is high,\u201d said an editorial in the country\u2019s largest daily,\u00a0Prensa Libre.\u00a0<\/em>For Ar\u00e9valo\u2019s new government, it said, \u201cthat constitutes the greatest challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ByMary Jo McConahay Jan 17, 2024...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62145,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62144\/revisions\/62145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}