Guatemala’s New President Is Sworn In, Regardless of Efforts to Cease Him

Regardless of staunch resistance from his opponents within the authorities, the anticorruption crusader Bernardo Arévalo was inaugurated early Monday morning as Guatemala’s president, a turning level in a rustic the place tensions have been simmering over widespread graft and impunity.

His inauguration had been scheduled for Sunday, however members of Congress delayed it, and issues persevered about whether or not it could occur in any respect. However after a world outcry and stress from protesters, Mr. Arévalo was sworn in shortly after midnight, turning into Guatemala’s most progressive head of state since democracy was re-established within the Eighties.

His rise to energy — six months after his victory on the polls delivered a surprising rebuke to Guatemala’s conservative political institution — quantities to a sea change in Central America’s most populous nation. His landslide election mirrored broad assist for his proposals to curb graft and revive a teetering democracy.

However as Mr. Arévalo prepares to manipulate, he should assert management whereas going through off towards an alliance of conservative prosecutors, members of Congress and different political figures who’ve gutted Guatemala’s governing establishments in recent times.

“Arévalo has the most thankless job in Guatemala today because he arrives with exceptionally high expectations,” mentioned Edgar Ortíz Romero, an skilled on Guatemalan constitutional regulation. “He’s been given a budget for a Toyota when people want a Ferrari.”

Mr. Arévalo’s opponents in Congress moved to rein him in late final 12 months, approving a price range that will severely restrict his capacity to spend on well being care and schooling, two of his high priorities.

However discovering assets to spend is simply one of many difficulties confronting Mr. Arévalo. Extra urgently, as his opponents in Congress confirmed once more on Sunday, he faces a number of challenges from Guatemala’s entrenched institution, aimed toward rapidly crippling his capacity to manipulate.

The facility battle taking part in out in Guatemala, a nation of 18 million, is being carefully adopted all through Central America, a area on edge over the increasing sway of drug cartels, the exodus of migrants and using authoritarian techniques in neighboring nations like El Salvador and Nicaragua.

“This is a unique event in the country’s history,” mentioned Javier García, a 31-year-old engineer, who was among the many 1000’s who turned out to have a good time the inauguration within the capital, Guatemala Metropolis. “Now I hope those who lost the election understand this once and for all.”

The transition of energy was something however orderly. After he burst onto Guatemala’s political scene final 12 months, Mr. Arévalo confronted an assassination plot, his social gathering’s suspension and a barrage of legal attacks aimed toward stopping him from taking workplace. His opponent within the presidential race, a former first woman, refused to acknowledge his victory.

Within the capital, hypothesis swirled in latest days that prosecutors would search the arrest of Mr. Arévalo’s working mate, Karin Herrera, probably derailing the inauguration as a result of each the president-elect and vice president-elect should be current for the switch of energy to be legit.

Guatemala’s highest courtroom issued an order final week shielding Ms. Herrera from arrest, giving her and Mr. Arévalo a reprieve. However the identical courtroom sowed confusion on Sunday when it allowed his conservative opponents to stay within the working to retain management of Congress.

Members of Congress against Mr. Arévalo then spent hours making an attempt to consolidate their maintain on the chamber, successfully delaying the switch of energy as a lot of the nation remained on tenterhooks. However in a twist on Sunday night time, Mr. Arévalo’s social gathering managed to win management of Congress, clearing the best way for the swearing-in.

Prosecutors and judges against Mr. Arévalo had already gone on a judicial onslaught quickly after the nationwide election. In search of to forged doubt on Mr. Arévalo’s victory on the polls, the place he won by greater than 20 share factors, prosecutors obtained arrest warrants for 4 magistrates who served on Guatemala’s high electoral authority, alleging corruption within the acquisition of election software program. The 4 magistrates had been all exterior the nation when the warrants had been issued.

On Thursday, the lawyer common’s workplace arrested Napoleón Barrientos, a former inside minister, on the grounds that he had refused to make use of drive to take care of order in October towards protesters demanding the lawyer common’s resignation.

Such strikes have grown widespread in Guatemala since 2019, when conservative political figures shut down a pioneering United Nations-backed anticorruption mission. Dozens of prosecutors and judges who had been making an attempt to tackle graft fled into exile.

Pushing again, america, the European Union and a number of leaders in Latin America threw their assist behind Mr. Arévalo, a sociologist and former diplomat. That assist was seen on Sunday because the delays appeared to place the switch of energy unsure.

“There is no question that Bernardo Arévalo is the president of Guatemala,” said Samantha Energy, the administrator of america Company for Worldwide Growth, who led a U.S. delegation to the inauguration. She added, “The world is watching.”

The Biden administration maneuvered for months in assist of Mr. Arévalo after he shocked many in Guatemala, together with members of his social gathering, by squeaking right into a runoff election that he went on to resoundingly win.

Washington’s assist for reform stands in distinction to the role it played in Guatemala a long time in the past. The USA backed the Guatemalan army throughout a protracted, brutal civil warfare; one army dictator through the Eighties was later convicted of genocide for making an attempt to exterminate the Ixil, a Mayan Indian folks. In 1954, the C.I.A. engineered a coup that toppled a well-liked, democratically elected president, Jacobo Arbenz.

After that coup, Mr. Arévalo’s father, Juan José Arévalo, a former president who remains to be admired in Guatemala for permitting freedom of speech and creating the social safety system, spent years in exile round Latin America.

The youthful Mr. Arévalo, a soft-spoken sociologist and diplomat, was born in Uruguay throughout that point and was raised in Venezuela, Mexico and Chile earlier than the household might return to Guatemala.

As efforts intensified final month to stop Mr. Arévalo from taking workplace, america imposed sanctions on Miguel Martínez, one of many closest allies of the departing president, Alejandro Giammattei, over widespread bribery schemes.

And in a pivotal transfer, the American authorities in December imposed visa restrictions on almost 300 Guatemalans, together with greater than 100 members of Congress, accusing them of undermining democracy and the rule of regulation as they tried to weaken Mr. Arévalo and hold him from being inaugurated.

“The pressure from the United States has prevented a coup d’état; without that, we wouldn’t be here,” mentioned Manfredo Marroquín, the pinnacle of Citizen Motion, an anticorruption coverage group. “The Americans are like insurance: there in times of crisis.”

Nonetheless, the U.S. assist of Mr. Arévalo has revealed fissures in Guatemala. In his final weeks in workplace, Mr. Giammattei, who was barred by regulation from looking for re-election, grew more and more vocal in his criticism of the American sanctions and the worldwide assist for Mr. Arévalo.

Dealing one other blow to Mr. Arévalo, Mr. Giammattei withdrew Guatemala from an antidrug process drive created in 2020 with america. That transfer might weaken Guatemala’s capacity to fight drug trafficking teams, which have been increasing their sway across the nation.

On the similar time, Mr. Arévalo’s efforts to forge alliances have revealed how difficult it will likely be for him to manipulate. This month, he introduced the primary Guatemalan cupboard wherein ladies would account for half of all ministerial posts, however the celebration of that milestone was short-lived.

A member of a serious enterprise affiliation was named to the brand new cupboard, prompting calls that Mr. Arévalo, who has hewed to centrist insurance policies, was drifting to the precise. One other cupboard nominee withdrew after outdated feedback surfaced wherein she criticized a outstanding Indigenous activist.

Indignation additionally arose as a result of just one minister in his cupboard was Indigenous, regardless of the essential position that Indigenous teams performed in protesting towards the efforts to maintain Mr. Arévalo from taking workplace. Practically half of Guatemala’s inhabitants is Indigenous.

“There is an expectation that this new government will be different,” mentioned Sandra Xinico, an anthropologist and Indigenous activist. “But we’ve seen once again how Indigenous peoples are excluded from the political process.”