Wikileaks. The alleged US Embassy Cable of Guatemala is dated February 22, 2010. The issues discussed in the meeting between McFarland and Otto Perez Molina in February 2010 sound all very feasible. We only want to point out the most relevant issues that we consider being very important to read Otto Perez as a political leader in the Guatemalan context. (see complete cable below).
1. In the summary McFarland describes him as: “A former head of military intelligence, Perez Molina is no babe in the woods..”
McFarland’s description could not be more precise and shows a good sense of humor.
2. When asked if Otto Perez would continue the “My Family Progresses" Conditional Cash Transfer program, “Perez Molina smiled wryly and said "I'll have to."
This comment is very telling, the position of the Partido Patriota has been: “giving people money makes them lazy”, the rhetoric of the right wing sector that he precisely represents. So he is consistent, he doesn’t like it, doesn’t believe in it, but he knows that if he excludes the program for his campaign, he has no chance to win the elections.
3. Roxana Baldetti, Otto Perez running mate, said: “ that, while all indications are that the UNE believes it can overcome the constitutional prohibition of presidents' family members running for the presidency, Sandra Torres has not yet cleared that hurdle. The government's manipulation of the courts to allow her candidacy would be the source of bitter controversy.”
What Baldetti does not tell the Ambassador (on this occasion) is that other political parties (if they have any influence and power at all) have “friendly judges” in the newly elected Constitutional Court of Guatemala (2011). They have “friendly judges” in the elected magistrates for the Supreme Court (2009) and the Appellant courts (2009) too. One could call the newly elected members of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the Appellant Courts: goods in the shopping cart bought and paid for by mayor political parties. Each having made sure, they have some allies in the cart (the judiciary).
4. “Perez said the First Lady and her associates are preparing a smear campaign to falsely accuse him of human rights abuses during the internal conflict, and are trying to manipulate the judiciary to disqualify his presidential candidacy. Nonetheless, he was confident of winning the presidency in 2011.”
It is possible that this is the case. The First Lady is smart, she will use any ammunition she can get to discredit an opponent. But there is no question that General Otto Perez Molina was part of the military regimes. He was stationed as commander of the military base in Nebaj and other bases where massacres occurred, torture was implemented and disappearances where part of the military strategy of counterinsurgency. It is a fact, and it is very well documented, that he was a military commander in the army under General Rios Montt when “tierras arrasadas” was implemented. He was also head of Military Intelligence of Guatemala.
In the summary McFarland describes him as: A former head of military intelligence, Perez Molina is no babe in the woods…….
McFarland knows what happened during the long career of General Otto Perez in the Military.
One point that always has to be made is that the military did not act independently during the internal conflict. The military complied with the demands of the economic elite of Guatemala and the Government of the US during the cold war period. (President Bill Clinton apologized for the US role in the internal conflict). Any civil leader who is running for president now, that is a member of the Guatemalan elite of that time, knew what the military where doing and where probably part of the people who ordered the military to use systematic methods that include the atrocities of killings, disappearances, torture, torched earth strategies, etc.
Many of the so called left wing leaders, who are now in the political arena, are not better. They also used very cruel and atrocious methods. But now we know that they where very few. The number of atrocities is proportional (one could say) to the numbers of each side. (Guerillas and military). Fore more information see Guatemala, Memory of Silence. http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ceh/report/english/toc.html.
Most victims of the Guatemalan internal war where civilians.
The better leaders of the leftist movement, where killed either by the military or their own people.
There where other good leaders in Guatemala, left, right and moderates, but they are dead. Killed from the 50thies, 60thies, 70thies, 80thies, 90ties, too many decades of killing, the leadership of the country was decapitated.
What we have left are the mediocre survivors and opportunists, who have filled in the voids of power, not because they are capable, but because they where simply alive to fill the vacuum.
Using such harsh language might sound unfair, judgmental and arrogant of our part. Just surviving was for many a question of luck rather than intelligence. The internal war has to be de-mystified, the stereotypes have to be eliminated and the real facts of both sides have to be taken into consideration, otherwise we will never be able to move forward.
The current political and social status of Guatemala is indirectly a result of the elimination of generations of brilliant leaders during the long internal war. The current political and social issues of Guatemala exist not because of current ideologies, but because there is no one else left to lead.
We are not alone in our reflections about the current Guatemalan political leadership, many Guatemalan editorials and columns have been dedicated for many years to the issue that we no longer want to vote for the “less worse”, we want other alternatives. But there seem to be none, that is the real tragedy of this war and any war.
US Embassy Cable. Feb. 2010. SUBJECT: Opposition Leader Complains of Smear Campaign
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Cable/Otto/Perez/denuncia/Sandra/Torres/prepara/falsa/denuncia/elpepuint/20110414elpepuint_11/Tes
Summary
1. (C) The Ambassador met February 17 with rightist opposition leader General Otto Perez Molina. Perez said the First Lady and
her associates are preparing a smear campaign to falsely accuse him of human rights abuses during the internal conflict, and are trying
to manipulate the judiciary to disqualify his presidential candidacy. Nonetheless, he was confident of winning the presidency
in 2011. Perez Molina's Patriot Party is prepared to work with the government in Congress to pass important rule of law reform
legislation and would even consider supporting controversial tax reform, though the increasingly charged political environment
threatens to derail the legislative agenda. The Ambassador thanked Perez Molina and Baldetti for their support for a new election of
the head of the public defender's office. End Summary.
Opposition Leader Perez Molina Confident of Win
2. (C) On February 17, the Ambassador and Pol/Econ Counselor had breakfast with opposition leader retired General Otto Perez Molina
and Roxana Baldetti, the leader of his rightist Patriot Party's congressional bench. Perez Molina was confident he would win the
fall 2011 presidential election. Press had reported on February 16 the results of two polls. One that Perez Molina commissioned
showed him leading First Lady Sandra Torres de Colom with 52% support to 9%; the governing UNE's poll reportedly showed him
edging out the First Lady 21% to 20%. Perez Molina said he thought he had a strong possibility of winning in the first round with over
50% of the vote.
3. (C) Asked whether Sandra Torres' leadership of the "My Family Progresses" Conditional Cash Transfer program might give her a
decisive advantage with rural voters, who had delivered the presidency for Alvaro Colom in 2007, Perez Molina said no. For
every rural voter UNE had won over with the program, it had alienated another due to flawed methodology used to determine who
should be included. "That program has divided poor rural communities into 'haves' and 'have-nots'; it's actually somewhat
dangerous," said Baldetti. Asked whether he would publicly pledge to continue the program, Perez Molina smiled wryly and said "I'll
have to." Asked about competition from other rightist candidates, such as GANA's Alejandro Giammattei and VIVA's Harold Caballeros,
Baldetti said none had a chance of advancing to the second round. In an aside to Pol/Econ Counselor, Baldetti derisively described
would-be presidential contender Manuel Baldizon as a charlatan and criminal.
4. (C) Baldetti said that, while all indications are that the UNE believes it can overcome the constitutional prohibition of
presidents' family members running for the presidency, Sandra Torres has not yet cleared that hurdle. The government's
manipulation of the courts to allow her candidacy would be the source of bitter controversy, she predicted. Perez Molina added
that there is a small chance that the UNE would conclude Sandra Torres is not viable candidate, and instead run the popular
President of Congress, Roberto Alejos.
First Lady Preparing Smear Campaign
5. (C) Perez Molina said Sandra Torres is working closely with Gloria Porras, Secretary General of the Attorney General's Office,
to develop specious embezzlement charges that would falsely implicate him in the congressional MDF embezzlement scandal (ref
a). He asserted that President Colom, at his wife's behest, plans to name Porras Attorney General in May which, he opined, would
politicize the Attorney General's Office and guarantee impunity for the First Family. The Ambassador said the Embassy and the UN-led
International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) would engage closely on the Attorney General selection process, as
we had done with the Supreme Court last year (ref b). Perez Molina accused Secretary of Peace Orlando Blanco, a member of the First
Lady's inner circle, of coaching indigenous people in Quiche Department - where Perez Molina served as an army detachment
commander during the internal conflict - to bear false witness against him. Specifically, he said, Blanco was preparing a false
accusation that Perez Molina had personally murdered an entire indigenous family.
Prospects Good for Passage of Rule of Law Reform Legislation
6. (C) Baldetti agreed with the Ambassador on the urgency of congressional passage of certain rule of law reform measures,
particularly the Assets Seizure Law, Illicit Enrichment Law, and Injunctions (amparos) Reform Law. She said congressional consensus
was broad enough to ensure passage, likely within the next few months, but cautioned that partisan political attacks could derail
the legislative agenda at any moment. The Ambassador pressed her to see to it that that did not happen. Baldetti said she thought
Congress could pass the most important legislation before Easter Week, "but after that the knives will come out." Many Members of
Congress from other parties are looking to enhance their re-election prospects by switching to the Patriot Party, Baldetti
said. No decision had yet been made on whether to accept them, but she said there probably is not room for many on the party's slate
of congressional candidates, and that accepting too many outsiders could threaten the party's ideological coherence.
7. (C) Perez Molina thanked the Ambassador for having hosted him and President Colom to restart dialogue. He said he and the
president -- with whom he met in January -- were on speaking terms, though the same did not hold for the First Lady. The two
sides were not as far apart on tax reform as Colom publicly indicated, Perez Molina said. The Patriot Party also recognizes
the need for increased government revenue, and disagreed only with the income and car tax portions of the GOG's proposed reform
package. Enhanced transparency would, however, be critical to building public confidence and therefore political consensus, given
rampant corruption. The Ambassador noted that he had urged Colom to work much harder on transparency. He thanked Perez Molina and
Baldetti for their support for the annulment of Congress's recent election of a problematic candidate to head the Public Defenders'
Institute (septel).
Comment
8. (C) The fall 2011 election is far off, but is now foremost in the minds of Guatemala's political class. At this early stage,
Perez Molina appears to be the candidate to beat. The campaign will feature much mud-slinging. A former head of military
intelligence, Perez Molina is no babe in the woods, and will surely do his share of the slinging. Opponents exhaustively reviewed his
human rights record in the course of the 2007 presidential campaign, and were never able to develop evidence of wrongdoing.
In the meantime, we will work to keep Congress focused on the important legislative business at hand.
MCFARLAND
Photo: Wikipedia, Otto Perez Molina
