President Morales accused of reneging on promise to stamp out corruption in Guatemala.
| Autor | Reynolds, Louisa |
President Jimmy Morales, a former comedian, came to power in 2015 with the slogan "neither corrupt nor a thief," promising to clean up Guatemalan politics after President Otto Perez Molina was forced to step down in the midst of a massive corruption scandal known as "La Lmea" (NotiCen, Sept. 24, 2015, and Nov. 5, 2015). However, only two months after taking office, his administration has come under fire for its controversial cabinet appointments and for reneging on his promise not to accept deputies from other parties.
On Jan. 14, the day of his inauguration, Morales announced who his cabinet members would be. His more controversial choices included a government contractor as well as business representatives and civil servants with little political experience. One of the most highly criticized appointments was that of Sherry Ordonez Castro, whose construction company was awarded state contracts totaling US$2 million from 2006 to 2014.
Ordonez's appointment to be minister of communications became even more controversial after the Guatemalan media revealed that her company, Ingenieria y Servicios Viales (Insevi) fell into tax arrears in 2011, which led a judge to freeze the company's assets as well as Ordonez's own.
Ordonez told the press that Insevi owed US $9,000 to the Superintendencia de Administracion Tributaria (Taxation Superintendency, SAT) but media reports indicated that the real amount owed was US$37,000. Following the scandal, Ordonez resigned on Jan. 25 "for personal reasons."
When Morales was elected, he promised his party, the Frente de Convergencia Nacional (FCN), would never accept defectors from other parties, especially since most other parties had been tainted by corruption scandals.
Pragmatism wins out
However, pragmatism appears to have triumphed over Morales' desire to preserve his image as the anti-corruption candidate. The FCN's congressional faction has grown from 11 to 27 deputies after 16 deputies from various parties--including Libertad Democratica Renovada (LIDER), Todos, Partido Patriota (PP) and Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE)--defected to the FCN. Accepting the defectors has allowed the FCN to become the second largest party in Congress, after UNE, with 31 deputies. LIDER, which was the largest faction in Congress, with 45 deputies, has been left with just seven.
The defectors include a number of deputies with dubious track records, such as Congressman Julio Juarez, elected by the LIDER party, who is...
Para continuar leyendo
Solicita tu pruebaCOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
