Court blocks Sandra Torres bid for Guatemala presidency

[Judi Lynn]

Court blocks Sandra Torres bid for Guatemala presidency
Ex-wife of president was accused of sham divorce so she could take over from husband
Reuters in Guatemala City guardian.co.uk, Thursday 30 June 2011 09.20 BST

A court in Guatemala has thrown out a bid for the presidency by former first lady Sandra Torres, who divorced her husband in an attempt skirt a law barring her from seeking the top job.

Torres had hoped to succeed her ex-husband Alvaro Colom as president for the centre-left National Union of Hope (UNE), although polls have shown her trailing the leading conservative candidate, ex-army general Otto Perez, by a wide margin.

A constitutional clause dating from Guatemala's transition to democracy in the mid-1980s after decades of autocratic rule prevents family members of the president taking power.

Jairo Flores, secretary general of the UNE, said the supreme elections court had rejected Torres's candidacy and the party would appeal the ruling. The elections tribunal has not yet publicly explained the rejection.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/30/sandra-torres-court-blocks-presidency

[Peace Patriot]

1. Bad news for Guatemala!

Molina is far rightwing, ex-military, trained at the "School of the Americas" and advocates Big Boot "war on drugs" thuggery for controlling the peasants and clearing the land for transglobal corporate biofuel production. A thoroughgoing fascist who has been compared to Alvaro Uribe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Pérez_Molina
http://tenpercent.wordpress.com/2007/09/10/the-war-on-democracy-guatemala-otto-perez-molina/

Alvaro Colom and his wife Sandra Torres are leftists who advocate social justice, correcting Guatemala's huge rich/poor discrepancy and military/police and court corruption, and addressing problems such as drug trafficking, gangs and violence with education and jobs programs. It will be very unfortunate for Guatemala if Sandra Torres is not permitted to run for president and the left doesn't produce a strong candidate to oppose Molina. Molina no doubt has the full backing of the U.S. government--in funds, training, "laundering" his image, development of "talking points," use of the corpo-fascist media, dirty tricks, election fraud and whatever else he needs to 'win.' The far right coming to power in Guatemala once again would be a major coup for U.S. "free trade for the rich" and U.S. "war on drugs" profiteers.

I have not heard much about grass roots organization in Guatemala, such as we have seen in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and other countries that have managed to elect truly representative presidents and governments, or in Mexico where only fraudulent vote counting could keep the leftist out of the presidency, or in Honduras where a U.S.-supported coup d'etat smashed up the representative government and where an awesome grass roots movement has developed in the wake of the coup. So I don't know what the prospects are for Guatemala's left (i.e., Guatemala's poor majority) producing a strong enough presidential candidate (if Sandra Torres is not permitted to run).

Any Guatemala experts here who could fill us in?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Wow! I was wondering about who this guy is, and didn't have enough time to research.

Thanks for giving us an assist, a leg up with some background.

It really, really figures, doesn't it?

There are still some real dragons knocking around leftover from the massacres and genocide. Damn.