Las elecciones

Sunday was election day in Guatemala. Every governmental position was up for grabs—from the President down to the mayor for every municipality in the country.

Just a quick glance at a sampling of the world headlines over the past couple of months tells the story of what the election process has been like here:

BBC News
“Bullets overshadow Guatemala ballot”
“Guatemala campaign deaths mount”

The New York Times
“Guatemalans Choose President After Bloody Campaign”
“Drug Gangs Use Violence to Sway Guatemala Vote”

The Economist
“Ballots, bullets, and business”

Reuters
“Bloodshed hits Guatemalan election campaign”


Each article tells basically the same story, which can be nicely summed up in a quote from The New York Times, “It is election time in Guatemala and that means rallies and banners -- and body bags.”

This has been the bloodiest campaign season in the history of Guatemala with over 50 politically related murders leading up to the elections. Drug trafficking is big business in here and rumors of political parities being tied to drug gangs abound. Corruption is also rife—votes are bought and last minute projects have been undertaken to sway the vote.

As a safety precaution Peace Corps put us all on Standfast—no volunteer was to leave his/her site for the day before, the day of, and the day after the election. While violence hit home in other volunteer’s sites (one mayor’s house was looted and burned, while in another site the mayor was assassinated), fortunately Tactic was calm—calm as in no violence. As in all across the country, Tactic definitely had its fair share of political rallies, marches, and parades…even a UNE sponsored bicycle race (in which I unwittingly participated in the leg between my house and the Nu’Kem store).

Fortunately, election day itself was relatively peaceful with major disturbances occurring in only 15 municipalities in the country—4 of which were in Alta Verapaz (with 16 munis in total). With members of the army toting their M16s posted inside and around the voting stations, the day passed without incident here in Tactic.

Quite the opposite from the States, Guatemala is heavy on political parties (14 participated in the Presidential election) but light on political ideology. Since no single candidate won the required 50% majority vote, there will be a runoff in November between the two front-runners, Álvaro Colom of the Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza and Pérez Molina of the Partido Patriota. So Guatemala’s bloodiest election season just got a month and a half extension.