Indigenous farmworker leader bids for Guatemala presidency

[Judi Lynn]

By Sonia PÉrez D.?|?AP
March 15, 2023 at 12:10 p.m. EDT



Thelma Cabrera, presidential hopeful for the Movement for the Liberation of the People, MLP, party poses for photos at her home in El Asintal, Guatemala, Monday, March 13, 2023. Cabrera and the MLP are waiting for the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to approve the candidacy of her running-mate Jordan Rodas, ahead of 2023 general elections. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)


GUATEMALA CITY — An Indigenous female farmworker leader hopes to become Guatemala’s next president. But Thelma Cabrera faces an uphill fight, after the country’s Electoral Tribunal refused to allow her to register her candidacy.

There is just one week left in the registration period for the June 25 elections, but Cabrera and her Movement for Peoples’ Liberation are vowing to go ahead with her campaign whether the gets registered or not.

It was never going to be an easy fight. Even though the government’s last census said around 48% of Guatemalans identify as Indigenous — and some Indigenous groups insist the number is higher — lighter-skinned elites have always ruled.

Paradoxically, the tribunal barred Cabrera’s running mate from registering their ticket on the grounds he did not supply a letter stating there are no corruption cases open against him — even though it allowed politicians with pending cases to register.

“The political system has been corrupted,” said Cabrera. “The system itself has been designed by the corrupt to kept them free, but to tie the hands of those who are honest. We cannot stand this slavery we are living in anymore.”

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/03/15/guatemala-elections-thelma-cabrera-indigenous-candidate/ebd1c8da-c34b-11ed-82a7-6a87555c1878_story.html

Or:
https://archive.ph/fNSmZ