Task for new Guatemalan president

[Judi Lynn]

Source: BBC News

Last Updated: Tuesday, 6 November 2007, 16:51 GMT

Task for new Guatemalan president
James Painter
Latin America analyst, BBC

The new centre-left president of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom, wants his country to be a model of social democracy with a "Mayan face".

This, he hopes, will strengthen national unity in a country long divided by enormous social and racial differences.

The 56-year-old Mr Colom has a background in the textile business and does not belong to any of the 23 Mayan ethnic groups who make up more than 40% of the population.

But he has been ordained a Mayan priest, and drew much of his electoral support from the rural areas where poverty amongst indigenous groups is deep-rooted.

Mr Colom, who will start his four-year term on 14 January, says he will regularly consult a group of spiritual leaders, known as the Mayan Elders National Council.



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7081312.stm

[Judi Lynn]

1. You may recall how much Guatemala loved the visit from pResident George Bush!

Mar 8, 2007 11:52 pm US/Pacific
Priests To Purify Site After Bush Visit

(AP) GUATEMALA CITY
Mayan priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after President Bush visits next week, an official with close ties to the group said Thursday.

"That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture," Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders, said Thursday.

Bush's seven-day tour of Latin America includes a stopover beginning late Sunday in Guatemala. On Monday morning he is scheduled to visit the archaeological site Iximche on the high western plateau in a region of the Central American country populated mostly by Mayans.

Tiney said the "spirit guides of the Mayan community" decided it would be necessary to cleanse the sacred site of "bad spirits" after Bush's visit so that their ancestors could rest in peace. He also said the rites -- which entail chanting and burning incense, herbs and candles -- would prepare the site for the third summit of Latin American Indians March 26-30.

More:
http://cbs13.com/topstories/topstories_story_068025357.html

[David__77]

2. Hopefully Colom is closer to Chavez and Morales than Bachelet.

Of course he'll have to move slowly at first in order to consolidate his position,

[arcos]

3. I see him more as a Tabaré Vásquez, or maybe Lula...

They all come from outside the political establishment of the ruling elite of the last half a century, although all ran for President before and lost. He'll certainly be careful not to alienate Washington (much), but he won't be cozy in bed with corporate interests like all the past Presidents. He won't have a majority in the Guatemalan Congress, but he has a plurality, so hopefully he will be able to implement his agenda.

[Judi Lynn]

4. However this new "leftist" turns out, thank god he is NOT old "Iron Fist," Otto Perez Molina.

I've read that Guatemalans are more than anxious to forget the days of death squads, and not that wild to have one of their kind running the country again.

Hope this man will be allowed time and space to get his plan together and will be prepared to fend off the sabotage he can expect from the _Bush administration should he not be easy to manage.