Guatemala is moving towards an “authoritarian model” with the persecution of former anti-mafia prosecutors, independent judges and journalists, said former diplomat Edmond Mulet, centrist candidate for the presidency in the June 25 elections, in an interview with AFP.
A former high-ranking UN official, Mulet leads the polls of voting intentions together with former social democrat first lady Sandra Torres and conservative Zury Ríos, daughter of former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983).
“We are sliding little by little to an authoritarian model. I don’t say dictatorship for the moment, but authoritarian, like Nicaragua, for example,” said the 72-year-old lawyer.
“The persecution against media, journalists, justice operators, politicians (…) are worrisome elements,” he added.
Several former prosecutors who led corruption investigations and justice operators have been imprisoned or have gone into exile in recent times, mostly accused of alleged abuse of authority.
Many worked with the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig), a UN body that operated between 2007 and 2019 and helped uncover several frauds, including the one that led to the resignation in 2015 of then-President Otto Perez (2012-2015).
In addition, José Rubén Zamora, owner of a newspaper critical of the government (which ceased circulation), faces a controversial trial in which he risks a 40-year prison sentence for alleged money laundering.
The cases have been pushed by the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, sanctioned in 2021 by the United States, which considers her a “corrupt” character, but is supported by President Alejandro Giammattei.
Mulet began his political career in the 1980s as a deputy and in 1992 he presided over the Congress. He was also a journalist and ambassador to the United States and the European Union.
At the UN he was chief of staff to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (2015-2016) and undersecretary-general for Peacekeeping Operations (2007-2010, 2011-2015). He also headed the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH 2006-2007, 2010-2011).
Four years lost
Mulet avoided answering whether if he won the presidency he would remove Porras. “It will be a river and a bridge that we will cross when it is our turn,” he responded.
However, he affirmed that Guatemala is going through “a very serious situation at all levels” due to corruption and regretted that public institutions are “contaminated”. And he promised to initiate a staggered “cleaning” and to seek the support of US and EU agencies to go after “the money trail”.
“If the head is corrupt or rotten, the others are allowed to commit anything,” added the candidate with gray hair and mustache, who reproves the management of the right-wing Giammattei, who must hand over to the winner of the elections on January 14.
“It is really going to be four lost years for the development of the country and rather a very important regression in all aspects”, he said.
Without copying Bukele
Torres and Ríos offer to imitate the “war” against gangs of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, which has raised security levels in the neighboring country, but Mulet pointed out that the conditions do not exist in Guatemala to replicate it due to its greater territorial extension, among other factors.
El Salvador “is a very small territory (21,041 km2), with a high population density and it is not possible to imitate what one country does in another country. They are different circumstances, different historical moments, different geographical situations,” he said.
Bukele “solved that problem in some way, but he is creating other problems at the level of de-institutionalization of the country, of regression also in purely democratic aspects”, added Mulet, who bets on the control of prisons and “red points” where violence is concentrated.
Nor is he in favor of reintroducing the death penalty, as promised by Ríos, stating that “it is not a deterrent” to contain crime.
Last year there were 4,274 homicides in Guatemala, half of them attributed to drug trafficking and gangs dedicated to contract killings and extortion.
Will continue with Taiwan
Mulet, who is running for the presidency for the second time, declared himself in favor of maintaining relations with Taiwan, “not seeing an objective reason to change” to China, despite the fact that all the other Central American countries, except Belize, have been linked to Beijing.
He indicated that he prefers to avoid “friction with the United States, our largest geopolitical and economic partner”, from which he will ask for thousands of work visas for his compatriots as a measure to curb irregular migration.
“There are more than 10 million vacancies [for employment] in the United States, which really needs labor, and Guatemala can provide it,” he assured.
