Latin America: Winds Are
Blowing for the Left
Wing
Miguel Angel Sandoval,
one of Guatemala's
presidential candidates,
thinks that today's
situation favors the
left wing in Latin
America, where several
governments oppose
Washington's consensus
and neoliberal agenda.
"There are progressive
governments, with
different shades, in
many countries of the
continent, and they can
be generically called
leftist," the ex
guerrilla leader said.
Sandoval, one of 14
presidential candidates,
talked to Prensa Latina
about the platform of
the Guatemalan National
Revolutionary Movement
and the Left-Wing Broad
Movement (URNG-MAIZ),
the situation in the
country and his regional
view.
Regarding insecurity,
one of Guatemala's main
problems, he said that
preventive measures such
as education and jobs
for the youth, and an
in-depth reform in the
police, the Public
Ministry and the
Judiciary are needed.
Asked about political
violence in the election
campaign, during which
more than 40 leaders or
party activists have
been killed, Sandoval
pointed out that the
State's incapacity to
guarantee the people's
security is in the
background of that
situation.
Serious problems also
affect Guatemala's
countryside, where the
land is in the hand of
few landowners and there
are many landless
people, he added.
In order to solve that
problem, the
presidential candidate
favors an integral
agrarian reform.
Sandoval slammed the
Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
with the United States
and extolled the
Bolivarian Alternative
for the Americas (ALBA).
The FTA and all its
variants are based on
ruthless competition,
while the ALBA
implements a cooperation
agenda, so the URNG-MAIZ
envisages the
incorporation into that
mechanism as the first
measure in our foreign
policy, he stressed.
The former guerrilla
leader repeated his
support for the Cuban
Revolution and defended
its right to
sovereignty. "We are
absolutely consequent
with the statements of
principles that we have
always made and we will
not yield one
millimeter," he said.
He recalled that Cuba is
the country from the
international community
that provides most
assistance to Guatemala.
Sandoval expressed
optimism about the
success of Central
America's left wing, and
mentioned the victory of
Daniel Ortega in
Nicaragua and the
success of the Farabundo
Marti National
Liberation Front in El
Salvador as concrete
examples. |
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