Wikileaks and Otto Perez Molina

Rachel Hatcher at the National Security Archives summarizes two recent Wikileaks reports from the US Embassy in Guatemala. Both cables details meetings between US Ambassador McFarland and Otto Perez Molina and Roxana Baldetti of the Patriotic Party.

Here is the summary from the September 2008 meeting.

2007 presidential runner-up General Otto Perez Molina told the Ambassador September 4 that he is concerned about Guatemala's deteriorating security situation and the GOG's apparent inability to follow through on institutional reforms. The state is institutionally unprepared to confront rising security challenges posed by narcotrafficking, corruption, and violent crime. President Colom announced a substantial expansion of the army, but the GOG's draft budget makes no provision for such an expansion.

Perez and his party's bench leader, Roxana Baldetti, also discussed the GOG's social agenda and the ongoing congressional finance scandal. Baldetti predicted that Congress would pass the pending Freedom of Information Bill. Greater political will is needed to address rampant criminal penetration of the state's rule of law institutions.

And the summary from the February 2010 meeting.

The Ambassador met February 17 with rightist opposition leader General Otto Perez Molina. Perez said the First Lady and her associates are preparing a smear campaign to falsely accuse him of human rights abuses during the internal conflict, and are trying to manipulate the judiciary to disqualify his presidential candidacy. Nonetheless, he was confident of winning the presidency in 2011.

Perez Molina's Patriot Party is prepared to work with the government in Congress to pass important rule of law reform legislation and would even consider supporting controversial tax reform, though the increasingly charged political environment threatens to derail the legislative agenda. The Ambassador thanked Perez Molina and Baldetti for their support for a new election of the head of the public defender's office.