Black Campaigns Mar
Guatemalan Elections
Instead of a civilized
race for the presidency,
as the candidates
promised, the road to
elections in Guatemala
has been paved with
confrontations and black
campaigns to disqualify
the candidates.
Although the main
candidates signed a code
of ethics committing
themselves to behaving
properly during the
debates, the campaign
has been characterized
by slanderous and
virulent emails among
adversaries.
An example of that was
an exchange of
accusations between the
two parties leading the
polls: Unidad Nacional
de la Esperanza (UNE),
led by Alvaro Colom, and
Partido Patriota (PP),
whose candidate is
General (R) Otto Perez
Molina.
The conflict began when
a UNE deputy accused
Perez Molina's followers
of being behind the
assassinations of urban
transportation workers
to favor their proposals
to be "firm" with crime.
In reply to the
accusation, the PP took
advantage of an internal
problem in Colom's party
to counterattack,
claiming that "the
tentacles of the mafia
have found a nest."
In addition to this open
hostility, there have
been other forms of sly
attacks, including
anonymous messages to
disqualify the
adversaries.
Francisco Garcia, the
coordinator of the
analysis unit of the
Central American
Institute for Political
Studies, described as
black campaigns the
practices aimed at
weakening the opponent
when he she is standing
on solid grounds.
"Definitely, this kind
of maneuver weakens the
civic political
processes and
leadership, and deprives
the elections of the
quality of competition
that they should have in
a society that is
considered democratic,"
Garcia said. |
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