DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

Try going for a stroll in much of Guatemala City: It is a pedestrian’s nightmare. Rifle-grasping guards squint at each passerby, sizing up potential assailants. But tucked within the chaotic capital’s crazy-quilt sprawl, there is a dreamlike haven where none of that exists. Evoking the feel of a serene Mediterranean town, Cayalá features milky white buildings with red-tile roofs, a colossal civic hall with Tuscan columns, cafes and high-priced restaurants, colonnade-lined plazas and walkable, stone-paved boulevards. All of this is open to the public — except for the gated sections where about 2,000 families live.

Locations: Guatemala City, Cayalá, States

☆ Tempers Flare as Guatemala’s Presidential Inauguration Is Delayed
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-14 | by ( Simon Romero | Jody García | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Opponents of the anticorruption crusader Bernardo Arévalo delayed his inauguration as president of Guatemala on Sunday, ratcheting political tensions higher in Central America’s most populous country. Confusion around the transition of power emerged shortly after Guatemala’s highest court on Sunday allowed conservative members of Congress opposed to Mr. Arévalo to maintain their leadership of the chamber. After that ruling, arguments among lawmakers flared in the chamber around midday when Congress was expected to officially name Mr. Arévalo as president. Some congressional members went behind closed doors; as they remained deliberating, other lawmakers contended they were trying to derail the transfer of power, fueling bewilderment and frustration around the country. “These are the latest strategies that corrupt elites are using to prevent a democratically elected government from coming to power,” said José Ochoa, 64, a small-business owner who was among the hundreds who streamed into the streets of Guatemala City’s old center to show support for Mr. Arévalo on Sunday.

Persons: Bernardo Arévalo, Arévalo, ”, José Ochoa Locations: Guatemala, Central America’s

☆ New Leader Set to Take Over in Guatemala, Raising Hopes for a Fragile Democracy
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-14 | by ( Simon Romero | Jody García | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Since Bernardo Arévalo burst onto Guatemala’s political scene last year as an anticorruption crusader, he has faced an assassination plot, his party’s suspension and a barrage of legal attacks aimed at preventing him from taking office as president. Mr. Arévalo’s inauguration on Sunday — six months after his presidential victory delivered a stunning rebuke to Guatemala’s conservative political establishment — will mark a sea change in Central America’s most populous country. His landslide election reflected broad support for his proposals to curb graft and revive a teetering democracy. “Arévalo has the most thankless job in Guatemala today because he arrives with exceptionally high expectations,” said Edgar Ortíz Romero, a constitutional law expert. “He’s been given a budget for a Toyota when people want a Ferrari.”

Persons: Bernardo Arévalo, Arévalo’s, Arévalo, “ Arévalo, ”, Edgar Ortíz Romero, “ He’s Organizations: Toyota Locations: Central America’s, Guatemala

Ecuador and Guatemala held elections on Sunday that shed light on crucial trends throughout Latin America, including anticorruption drives, the growing importance of young voters and calls to emulate El Salvador’s crackdown on crime. In Ecuador, where the assassination this month of the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio cast a pall over campaigning, an establishment leftist, Luisa González, will head into a runoff against Daniel Noboa, the scion of a well-heeled family known for its banana empire. And in Guatemala, the progressive anti-graft crusader Bernardo Arévalo won in a landslide over a former first lady, Sandra Torres, dealing a blow to the country’s conservative political establishment. As concerns simmer over the erosion of the rule of law and the expanding sway of drug gangs in different parts of Latin America, the voting was watched closely for signs of what the outcomes could mean.

Persons: El, Fernando Villavicencio, Luisa González, Daniel Noboa, Bernardo Arévalo, Sandra Torres Locations: Ecuador, Guatemala, America

An anticorruption crusader won a runoff election for Guatemala’s presidency on Sunday, handing a stunning rebuke to the conservative political establishment in Central America’s most populous nation. Bernardo Arévalo, a polyglot sociologist from an upstart party made up largely of urban professionals, took 58 percent of the vote with 98 percent of votes counted on Sunday, the electoral authority said. His opponent, Sandra Torres, a former first lady, got 37 percent. Alejandro Giammattei, the current president, who is prohibited by law from seeking re-election, congratulated Mr. Arévalo and extended an invitation to organize an “orderly” transition of power. Mr. Arévalo’s win marks a watershed moment in Guatemala, both a leading source of migration to the United States and one of Washington’s longtime allies in the region.

Persons: Bernardo Arévalo, Sandra Torres, Alejandro Giammattei, Mr, Arévalo, Arévalo’s Organizations: Sunday Locations: Central America’s, Guatemala, United States

While Guatemala’s president, the broadly unpopular leader Alejandro Giammattei, is prohibited by law from seeking re-election, concerns over a slide toward authoritarianism have grown more acute as he has expanded his sway over the country’s institutions. Who is Bernardo Arévalo? Bernardo Arévalo, 64, an intellectual, is the son of a Juan José Arévalo, a former president who is still exalted for creating Guatemala’s social security system and protecting free speech. After the former leader was forced into exile in the 1950s, Bernardo Arévalo was born in Uruguay and grew up in Venezuela, Chile and Mexico before returning to Guatemala as a teenager. Mr. Arévalo is proposing to hire thousands of new police officers and upgrade security at prisons.

Persons: Alejandro Giammattei, Bernardo Arévalo, Juan José Arévalo, Arévalo, Nayib Bukele Locations: Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador

Bernardo Arévalo had been enjoying a quiet and predictable life for nearly a decade with his family in Geneva, working on pro-democracy issues for a nonprofit. That placid existence ended after he returned to his homeland, Guatemala, and got drawn into politics. Today, whenever Mr. Arévalo appears in public, he attracts throngs to hear him assail the government’s attacks on Guatemala’s democracy. Flanked by a well-armed security detail after receiving death threats following the assassination last week of a presidential candidate in Ecuador — which sent tremors across Latin America — Mr. Arévalo wears a bullet-resistant vest and travels in an armored S.U.V. Now, in what is building into a watershed moment for Central America’s most populous country, Mr. Arévalo, a Hebrew- and French-speaking polyglot with a doctorate in sociology, is on the cusp of winning the presidency in a runoff on Sunday — an implausible scenario just months ago.

Persons: Bernardo Arévalo, Arévalo, throngs Organizations: America’s Locations: Geneva, Guatemala, Ecuador, America

Guatemala’s presidential election was thrown into turmoil Wednesday night after a top prosecutor moved to suspend the party of a surging anticorruption candidate, threatening his bid to take part in a runoff and potentially dealing a severe blow to the country’s already fraying democracy. The move could prevent Bernardo Arévalo, a lawmaker who jolted Guatemala’s political class in June with a surprise showing propelling him in the Aug. 20 runoff, from competing against Sandra Torres, a former first lady. Rafael Curruchiche, the prosecutor who mounted the case to suspend the party, has himself been listed among corrupt Central American officials by the United States for obstructing corruption inquiries. The development places even greater stress on Guatemala’s political system, after the barring of several top presidential candidates who were viewed as threatening to the political and economic establishment, assaults on press freedom and the forced exile of dozens of prosecutors and judges focused on curbing corruption.

Persons: Bernardo Arévalo, jolted, Sandra Torres, Rafael Curruchiche Organizations: Central Locations: United States

☆ What an Election Surprise in Central America Means for Democracy
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Jody García | Simon Romero | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Judges and prosecutors driven from the country. Top presidential candidates barred from running. Warning signs of the teetering democracy in Central America’s most populous country flashed in the weeks leading up to Guatemala’s presidential election. Bernardo Arévalo, 64, a professorial lawmaker with degrees in philosophy and anthropology, won 12 percent of the vote, with 98 percent of votes counted in Sunday’s first round, the electoral authority said on Monday. Sandra Torres, 67, a former first lady considered a standard-bearer for the conservative establishment, came in first with nearly 16 percent of the vote.

Persons: Bernardo Arévalo, Sandra Torres Locations: Central America’s, Sunday’s

☆ Guatemala Picks a New President: What You Need to Know
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-25 | by ( Jody García | Simon Romero | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Another top challenger, Zury Ríos, 55, is also a familiar figure in Guatemalan politics. She is the daughter of Efraín Ríos Montt, a dictator in the early 1980s who was convicted in 2013 of genocide for trying to exterminate the Ixil, a Mayan people. While the evidence against her father was meticulously documented and detailed at his trial, Ms. Ríos has claimed repeatedly that no genocide ever took place. Her ultraconservative party is led by figures with links to her father. Still, while Ms. Ríos promotes her conservative credentials and evangelical Christian beliefs, she has a more nuanced record as a former member of Congress when she forged alliances in an effort to win legislative approval for bills aimed at improving conditions for women and L.G.T.B.Q.

Persons: Torres, Zury Ríos, Efraín Ríos Montt, Ríos, Still, Edmond Mulet, Mulet Organizations: European Union, United Nations Stabilization Locations: El Salvador, United States, Haiti

A Guatemalan judge walked into a meeting at the American Embassy last spring and pulled out a large quantity of cash: The money, she said, was a bribe from one of the president’s closest allies. The judge, Blanca Alfaro, helps lead the authority that oversees the country’s elections. She claimed the money had been given to her to gain influence over the electoral agency, according to a U.S. official briefed on the encounter and a person who was present and requested anonymity to discuss the details of a private meeting. American diplomats were shocked by the brazenness of the episode, but not by the allegations. In the volatile political climate consuming Guatemala in the run-up to presidential elections on Sunday, there has been one constant: a steady drumbeat of attacks on democratic institutions by those in power.

Persons: Blanca Alfaro Organizations: American Embassy, U.S Locations: Guatemala

☆ He Exposed Corruption in Guatemala. Now He’s Been Sentenced to Prison.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Emiliano Rodríguez Mega | Jody García | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One of Guatemala’s most high-profile journalists was convicted on Wednesday of money laundering and sentenced to up to six years in prison, in a trial denounced by human rights and free speech advocates as another sign of the deteriorating rule of law. The journalist, José Rubén Zamora, was tried on charges of financial wrongdoing that prosecutors say focused on his business dealing, not his journalism. He was acquitted of blackmail and influence peddling, and fined about $40,000. Mr. Zamora was the founder and publisher of elPeriódico, a leading newspaper in Guatemala that regularly investigated government corruption, including accusations involving the current president, Alejandro Giammattei, and the attorney general, María Consuelo Porras. For activists defending press freedom and civil rights in Guatemala, Wednesday’s verdict and sentencing, delivered by a panel of judges, was another blow to the country’s wobbly democratic health, as the government and its allies have taken repeated aim at key institutions and independent news outlets.

Persons: José Rubén Zamora, Zamora, Alejandro Giammattei, María Consuelo Porras Locations: Guatemala

☆ A Newspaper’s Closing Deals a Blow to a Nation’s Democracy
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Jody García | Elda Cantú | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“If you’re a journalist, do you have the right to commit criminal acts because you are a journalist?” Mr. Giammattei asked during an interview with a Colombian radio station in January. “Does journalism grant you immunity?”Nine other journalists at the newspaper are also under investigation by the government, some of them because they wrote about Mr. Zamora’s case, which prosecutors have said constitutes obstruction of justice. Some journalists at elPeriodico have fled Guatemala, fearing legal repercussions because of their work. “The feeling came that everything was falling, everything was leading us to disappear,” said Mr. Aceituno, in an interview on Sunday in his Guatemala City home, which was filled with books and movie posters. “What we are seeing in Guatemala is the latest example of how press freedom is eroding in the region.”

Search resuls for: "Jody García"

13 mentions found