Indigenous Leader Is Barred From Running in Guatemala's Presidential Election
The Guatemalan Constitutional Court upheld a decision to bar human rights defender Thelma Cabrera from running.
By Amy Goodman , DEMOCRACYNOW!
Published March 3, 2023
- video at link -
Guatemala’s presidential election this year is taking place against a backdrop of worsening repression against journalists, human rights activists and Indigenous environmental defenders. The Guatemalan Constitutional Court on Thursday upheld a decision by the country’s electoral tribunal to bar Indigenous human rights defender Thelma Cabrera from running. Cabrera and her running mate, former human rights ombudsman Jordán Rodas, are members of the leftist political party the Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples. They visited the United States in February to meet with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights following their ban and spoke with Democracy Now! about the election, their platform and how political elites in the country have consolidated power. “Guatemala is a corrupt state that’s been coopted by criminals. This is now reflected in violating our right to participate in this presidential election,” said Cabrera.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report.
From the Nigerian election to the election in this hemisphere, to Guatemala, we end today’s show looking at this year’s presidential election there, happening at a time of worsening repression in Guatemala against journalists, human rights activists and Indigenous environmental defenders in the Central American country.
The Guatemalan Constitutional Court Thursday ruled against presidential candidate Thelma Cabrera and her running mate, exiled human rights ombudsman Jordán Rodas, upholding a February decision by Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal to block them from the ballot. Cabrera and Rodas are members of the leftist political party, the Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples, which grew out of the Indigenous-led farmers’ rights organization CODECA. Across Guatemala, thousands have taken to the streets in protest, demanding that Cabrera and Rodas be allowed to participate in June’s election.
Thelma Cabrera is a Maya Mam environmental and human rights defender, who also ran for president in 2019, receiving an unprecedented wave of support. She got about 10% of the vote. Rodas served as human rights prosecutor in Guatemala from 2017 until last year, when he was forced to flee for allying himself with anti-corruption efforts.
While they are being banned from participating in the election, the Guatemalan Constitutional Court has confirmed the presidential candidacy of the conservative Zury Ríos. She’s the daughter of the dead former U.S.-backed military dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, who rose to power after a coup in 1982. Ríos Montt was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity 10 years ago. Zury Ríos had been prohibited from running in 2019 due to a constitutional measure that doesn’t allow figures who came to power by coup, or their blood relatives, to run for president.
More:
https://truthout.org/video/indigenous-leader-is-barred-from-running-in-guatemalas-presidential-election/
Zury Ríos, following her genocidal dictator father, Efraín Ríos Montt
Efraín Ríos Montt, mass murdering, genocidal Guatemalan dictator, and fundamentalist preacher, with his strong advocate and supporter, former President Ronald Reagan
Zury Ríos with former Illinois U.S. Republican Congressman Jerry Weller
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By Edgardo Ayala
Thelma Cabrera and Jordán Rodas launch their candidacy for the presidency and vice presidency of Guatemala in December 2022, which has been vetoed by the courts, in a maneuver that has drawn criticism from human rights groups at home and abroad. CREDIT: Twitter
SANTA CATARINA PALOPÓ, Guatemala, Mar 4 2023 (IPS) - Centuries of racism and exclusion suffered by indigenous peoples in Guatemala continue to weigh heavily, as demonstrated by the denial of the registration of a political party that is promoting the presidential candidacy of indigenous leader Thelma Cabrera in the upcoming general elections.
On Mar. 2, the Guatemalan Constitutional Court ruled against Cabrera’s party, the leftist Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP), which had appealed a Feb. 15 Supreme Court resolution that left them out of the Jun. 25 elections.
. . .
A centuries-old racist system
Guatemala’s political and economic elites “are looking for ways to keep her (Cabrera) from registering; everyone has the right to participate, but they are blocking her,” Sonia Nimacachi, 31, a native of Santa Catarina Palopó, told IPS. The municipality, which has a Cachiquel Mayan indigenous majority, is in the southwestern Guatemalan department of Sololá.
. . .
In Guatemala, the ancient Mayan culture was flourishing when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 16th century. The descendants of that pre-Hispanic civilization still speak 24 different autochthonous languages, most of which are Mayan.
Years of exclusion and neglect of indigenous rural populations led Guatemala to a civil war that lasted 36 years (1960-1996) and left some 250,000 dead or disappeared.
More:
https://www.ipsnews.net/2023/03/racist-political-system-thwarts-candidacy-mayan-woman-guatemala/
