Despite staunch resistance from his opponents in the government, the anticorruption crusader Bernardo Arévalo was inaugurated early Monday morning as Guatemala’s president, a turning point in a country where tensions have been simmering over widespread graft and impunity.
His inauguration had been scheduled for Sunday, but members of Congress delayed it, and concerns persisted about whether it would happen at all. But after an international outcry and pressure from protesters, Mr. Arévalo was sworn in shortly after midnight, becoming Guatemala’s most progressive head of state since democracy was re-established in the 1980s.
His rise to power — six months after his victory at the polls delivered a stunning rebuke to Guatemala’s conservative political establishment — amounts to 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.
But as Mr. Arévalo prepares to govern, he must assert control while facing off against an alliance of conservative prosecutors, members of Congress and other political figures who have gutted Guatemala’s governing institutions in recent years.
“Arévalo has the most thankless job in Guatemala today because he arrives with exceptionally high expectations,” said Edgar Ortíz Romero, an expert on Guatemalan constitutional law. “He’s been given a budget for a Toyota when people want a Ferrari.”
Mr. Arévalo’s opponents in Congress moved to rein him in late last year, approving a budget that would severely limit his ability to spend on health care and education, two of his top priorities.
But finding resources to spend is just one of the difficulties confronting Mr. Arévalo. More urgently, as his opponents in Congress showed again on Sunday, he faces multiple challenges from Guatemala’s entrenched establishment, aimed at quickly crippling his ability to govern.
The power struggle playing out in Guatemala, a nation of 18 million, is being closely followed throughout Central America, a region on edge over the expanding sway of drug cartels, the exodus of migrants and the use of authoritarian tactics in neighboring countries like El Salvador and Nicaragua.
“This is a unique event in the country’s history,” said Javier García, a 31-year-old engineer, who was among the thousands who turned out to celebrate the inauguration in the capital, Guatemala City. “Now I hope those who lost the election understand this once and for all.”
The transition of power was anything but orderly. After he burst onto Guatemala’s political scene last year, Mr. Arévalo faced an assassination plot, his party’s suspension and a barrage of legal attacks aimed at preventing him from taking office. His opponent in the presidential race, a former first lady, refused to recognize his victory.
In the capital, speculation swirled in recent days that prosecutors would seek the arrest of Mr. Arévalo’s…
2024-01-15 01:26:40
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