Guatemala Links

Several presidential candidates in Guatemala recently protested that their electoral campaigns have suffered from media censorship and other barriers to access. 

In a paid advertisement published in Prensa Libre on August 19th signed by Gutierrez as well as other candidates Alejandro Giammatei, Adela Camacho de Torrebiarte, Mario Estrada, and the Nobel-prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, the blocked candidates denounced the manipulation of opinion polls by pressure groups that led to the distorted limitations on TV debates.

The statement argued that it was unacceptable and unconstitutional for self-appointed private groups with their own political interests to deny 7 out of 10 candidates the opportunity to present their platforms to Guatemalan voters. The ad requests immediate action from Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal, as well as action from the Human Rights Ombudsman to stand up for freedom of expression for all across the political spectrum.

There's obviously something to the candidates' complaints about media coverage. These candidates don't get the media access that they need because they're not polling well and one of the reasons that they're not polling well is that they're not getting much media coverage. How they are covered shouldn't be determined by how well they are polling since poll results are quite variable in Guatemala given all the difficulties of carrying them out well. 

However, even with Torres out of the race, the seven candidates combined barely manage to total 20% of the likely vote. With only two weeks to go before the election, it makes sense now to narrow the focus to those with a chance at winning. The seven left out candidates should be upset for the media's lack of coverage because it's likely to hurt their parties in congressional races and might not be good for democracy. 

El Periodico

The three candidates who do get media access (Manuel Baldizon of LIDER, Eduardo Suger of CREO, and Otto Perez Molina of the PP) squared off in a debate co-hosted by CNN en espanol on Thursday night. From the early coverage, security was the main theme.

Candidate Manuel Baldizon of the Leader Party proposed creating a new national guard to take the lead on fighting drug syndicates that he said were increasingly coming across Guatemala's border with Mexico.

Suger -- whose CREO Party acronym stands for commitment, renewal and order -- disputed that approach, arguing that existing forces must develop more sophisticated operations.

"The population cannot wait ... years would go by before anything happened," he said.

Candidate Otto Perez Molina of the Patriotic Party called for a "firm-handed" approach. The former military general called for "elite units of the army" to play a larger role. 

"We are proposing the change that is necessary in Guatemala and we are ready to propel it forward," Perez Molina said when asked to summarize his candidacy in a few words.

I'm not sure that adding a new national guard will help. Guatemala needs to add more police and military while improving their training and capabilities. Add a new institution just doesn't seem the wisest allocation of resources right now. However, adding more police and military is not likely to do much as long as the economy and institutional reforms drag.