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Weekly Report - 29 October 2015 (WR-15-43)

GUATEMALA: Morales takes on his most challenging role yet

A comedian and actor with no experience of public office will take over as Guatemala’s president on 14 January 2016 for a four-year term. It was precisely this lack of experience and perceived distance from the political establishment, whose credibility is in tatters following a string of corruption scandals which ultimately forced Otto Pérez Molina to resign as president last month, which was key to Jimmy Morales’s landslide victory for the small right-wing Frente de Convergencia Nacional (FCN-Nación) in the 25 October presidential run-off election. Unsurprisingly Morales – whose campaign slogan was ‘Not Corrupt, Not a Thief’ – has since reiterated his pledge to crack down on corruption. As well as ongoing concerns about the lack of substance of his proposed government plan [WR-15-41], local think-tanks and civil society groups question how far this pledge will be possible given the FCN-Nación’s low representation in the new 158-member unicameral legislature, not to mention impunity concerns surrounding some of its members.

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