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Weekly Report - 23 February 2012 (WR-12-08)
GUATEMALA: Pérez Molina blurs more boundaries
In just over a month, Guatemala’s new right-wing President Otto Pérez Molina has achieved what his centre-left predecessor Alvaro Colom was unable to do in four years in office. Last week, congress approved the first part of a comprehensive tax reform, hitherto resisted by the powerful private sector, which was based on the initiative put forward by Colom’s Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE) under the previous government. Granted, the reform – a declared priority of the President – is key to the success of his government plan in terms of raising the necessary revenue. Yet, along with his unexpected call to push the drugs legalisation debate [WR-12-03], the approval of the initiative, which should lift the tax take/GDP ratio to above the 12% target stipulated by the 1996 peace accords shows how Pérez Molina is currently confounding apparent ideological divisions.
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