Pre-election terror in Guatemala
August 12, 2007
Left centrist party National Unit of Expectations - La “Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza”, UNE suffered most losses – 15 persons. And it is not surprising, according to all ratings it is its candidate Alvaro Colom that has the best chances to sit in the President chair.
His closest rival is the retired general Otto Perez Molina, leader of the right centrist Patriotic party (“Partido Patriota”, PP). It has already lost 5 members. It is quite natural that Perez Molina carries out his campaign under the slogan of eradication of crime.
3 activists of the party Revolutionary national unit of Guatemala (“Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca”, URNG) have been killed.
In the team of famous Indian activist Rigoberta Menchu, Nobel peace prize laureate, who also claims for presidential ribbon, there are also victims to criminal bullets. Member of her party «Encounter for Guatemala» (“Encuentro por Guatemala”, EG) Carlos Enrique de Leon was found dead, literally riddled with bullets in the trunk of his car.
Hector Rosales, candidate for presidency from one of the marginal right parties, miraculously escaped death. Killers ambushed him at the highway 120 kilometers from the Guatemalan capital. Only owing to his quick wit Rosales managed to escape the pursuit.
According to local political scientists the unusually fierce nature of the current election campaign is conditioned not so much by the struggle of uncompromising political forces and programs as by the desire of criminal drug bodies to promote «their people» to key posts in state structures.