January 23, 2023, 9:35 AM
January 23, 2023, 9:35 AM
The indigenous leader Thelma Cabrera registered on Sunday (01.22.2023) as a candidate for the presidency of Guatemala for the general elections that will take place on June 25.
Cabrera reported his registration on his social networks, to try to obtain the presidency of the Central American country and thus improve the surprising fourth place obtained in the 2019 elections.
The indigenous leader will be accompanied in the vice presidency by the former Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman Jordán Rodas, who held that position between 2017 and 2022.
Cabrera and Rodas were appointed by the left-wing political group Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP) last December as its presidential and vice-presidential candidates, respectively.
In the 2019 elections, Cabrera had fourth place in the elections by obtaining 456,000 votes (10% of the total) behind Édmond Mulet (11%), Alejandro Giammattei (13%) and Sandra Torres (25%). In the second round of that year, Giammattei overtook Torres.
Cabrera, an indigenous Maya Mam, is a peasant and also a defender of human rights, a member for more than two decades of the Peasant Development Committee (Codeca), which brings together more than 200,000 people.
As a prosecutor, Rodas was known for being critical of the governments of Jimmy Morales (2016-2020) and Alejandro Giammattei, as well as being a strong opponent of corruption in Guatemala.
According to the vision of several analysts, Cabrera and Rodas have strong options in the presidential race, for which they anticipate that the extreme right and some sectors in favor of corruption will seek to avoid their participation in the elections in court.
This is what happened with the former anti-corruption prosecutor Thelma Aldana, banned from the 2019 elections for an alleged case of corruption that has not yet been proven and that forced her into exile in the United States.
The elections in Guatemala will be held on June 25 to elect a president, 160 legislators to Congress, 20 to the Central American Parliament and 340 municipal mayors for the period 2024-2028.
