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 considerations persevered about whether or not it could occur in any respect. However after a world outcry and strain 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 Nineteen 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 help 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 in opposition to an alliance of conservative prosecutors, members of Congress and different political figures who’ve gutted Guatemala’s governing establishments lately.
“Arévalo has essentially the most thankless job in Guatemala as we speak as a result of he arrives with exceptionally excessive expectations,” mentioned Edgar Ortíz Romero, an professional on Guatemalan constitutional regulation. “He’s been given a price range for a Toyota when folks desire a Ferrari.”
Mr. Arévalo’s opponents in Congress moved to rein him in late final 12 months, approving a price range that may severely restrict his skill to spend on well being care and training, two of his prime 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 shortly crippling his skill to manipulate.
The ability wrestle taking part in out in Guatemala, a nation of 18 million, is being intently adopted all through Central America, a area on edge over the increasing sway of drug cartels, the exodus of migrants and the usage of authoritarian ways in neighboring nations like El Salvador and Nicaragua.
“This can be a distinctive occasion within the nation’s historical past,” 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 that misplaced the election perceive this as soon as 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 get together’s suspension and a barrage of authorized assaults aimed toward stopping him from taking workplace. His opponent within the presidential race, a former first girl, refused to acknowledge his victory.
Within the capital, hypothesis swirled in current 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 reputable.
Guatemala’s highest court docket issued an order final week shielding Ms. Herrera from arrest, giving her and Mr. Arévalo a reprieve. However the identical court docket 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 attempting 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 evening, Mr. Arévalo’s get together managed to win management of Congress, clearing the way in which for the swearing-in.
Prosecutors and judges against Mr. Arévalo had already gone on a judicial onslaught quickly after the nationwide election. Searching for to solid doubt on Mr. Arévalo’s victory on the polls, the place he gained by greater than 20 proportion factors, prosecutors obtained arrest warrants for 4 magistrates who served on Guatemala’s prime 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 normal’s workplace arrested Napoleón Barrientos, a former inside minister, on the grounds that he had refused to make use of pressure to keep up order in October in opposition to protesters demanding the lawyer normal’s resignation.
Such strikes have grown frequent 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 attempting to tackle graft fled into exile.
Pushing again, the US, the European Union and a number of leaders in Latin America threw their help behind Mr. Arévalo, a sociologist and former diplomat. That help was seen on Sunday because the delays appeared to place the switch of energy doubtful.
“There isn’t a query that Bernardo Arévalo is the president of Guatemala,” mentioned Samantha Energy, the administrator of the US Company for Worldwide Improvement, who led a U.S. delegation to the inauguration. She added, “The world is watching.”
The Biden administration maneuvered for months in help of Mr. Arévalo after he shocked many in Guatemala, together with members of his get together, by squeaking right into a runoff election that he went on to resoundingly win.
Washington’s help for reform stands in distinction to the function it performed in Guatemala many years in the past. The USA backed the Guatemalan army throughout a protracted, brutal civil conflict; one army dictator throughout the Nineteen Eighties was later convicted of genocide for attempting to exterminate the Ixil, a Mayan Indian folks. In 1954, the C.I.A. engineered a coup that toppled a preferred, democratically elected president, Jacobo Arbenz.
After that coup, Mr. Arévalo’s father, Juan José Arévalo, a former president who continues 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 forestall Mr. Arévalo from taking workplace, the US 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 practically 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 maintain him from being inaugurated.
“The strain from the US has prevented a coup d’état; with out that, we wouldn’t be right here,” mentioned Manfredo Marroquín, the top of Citizen Motion, an anticorruption coverage group. “The Individuals are like insurance coverage: there in occasions of disaster.”
Nonetheless, the U.S. help of Mr. Arévalo has revealed fissures in Guatemala. In his final weeks in workplace, Mr. Giammattei, who was barred by regulation from in search of re-election, grew more and more vocal in his criticism of the American sanctions and the worldwide help for Mr. Arévalo.
Dealing one other blow to Mr. Arévalo, Mr. Giammattei withdrew Guatemala from an antidrug activity pressure created in 2020 with the US. That transfer might weaken Guatemala’s skill to fight drug trafficking teams, which have been increasing their sway across the nation.
On the identical time, Mr. Arévalo’s efforts to forge alliances have revealed how difficult will probably be for him to manipulate. This month, he introduced the primary Guatemalan cupboard by which ladies would account for half of all ministerial posts, however the celebration of that milestone was short-lived.
A member of a significant 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 fitting. One other cupboard nominee withdrew after previous feedback surfaced by which she criticized a distinguished Indigenous activist.
Indignation additionally arose as a result of just one minister in his cupboard was Indigenous, regardless of the essential function that Indigenous teams performed in protesting in opposition to the efforts to maintain Mr. Arévalo from taking workplace. Practically half of Guatemala’s inhabitants is Indigenous.
“There’s an expectation that this new authorities shall be completely different,” mentioned Sandra Xinico, an anthropologist and Indigenous activist. “However we’ve seen as soon as once more how Indigenous peoples are excluded from the political course of.”
