Aren't we all Guatemala? – SportsNewsForYou

As part of the peace agreements
in Guatemala, a United Nations commission was set up on
December 12, 2006: the International Commission against
Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). Its mission was to
assist the Guatemalan government in carrying out criminal investigations and
proceeding with the punishment of those found guilty through
institutional channels, in a
country which is used to resolving conflicts with
bullets.

The combined existence of the CICIG and the efforts of an extremely virtuous Attorney-General,
Claudia Paz y Paz, produced an actual institutional revolution in the
country. Murders were punished,
former President Efraín Rios Montt became the first
head of state to be convicted of genocide by a national court, and for the first time corruption cases began to be investigated.

This shook the wasps’ nest. Claudia Paz y Paz was
not reappointed and the government threatened to
request the dismantlement of the CICIG.

The massive citizen mobilization,
the courageous work of some independent
media outlets and intense international pressure were the
key elements which enabled the CICIG to carry on with
its job and ensured continued public
attention to the scandals that were
being revealed.

A
corruption scheme was eventually unearthed and it took Vice-President Roxana
Baldetti with it. Big demonstrations took
to the streets of the capital. She resigned.
The investigation got as far as President Pérez Molina. He said he
would not leave. The demonstrations reached unprecedented levels. Congress withdrew the President’s immunity and he too finally
resigned. He was immediately arrested.

Just to make things more exciting, while the crisis developed, presidential elections were
in full swing. Pérez Molina’s
candidate Manuel Baldizón, who was the clear favourite before the
mobilizations, did not make it to the second round. Who came first (and
eventually won) the second round on October 25? Jimmy Morales, a comedian.

It is hard to describe who Morales is. His
campaign, based on his TV popularity, focused
on fighting the establishment, politicians, and politics. The problem
is that Jimmy Morales ran for the party of the right-wing military. And he received support – and financing,
of course – from businessmen who
supported Pérez Molina and collaborated with his government. The large
student mobilizations that led to
the downfall of the Vicepresident,
and later the President himself, obviously did not want this outcome.

What
can we learn from all this?

Guatemala is the radical
expression of a crisis affecting almost every country in Latin America. The last decades have
witnessed huge progress (depending on the country) in
transparency policies, thanks to the strengthening of anti-corruption institutions
and a new kind of citizen mobilization, highly demanding and autonomous, independent of the
traditional parties and movements. The great promise
was that this would alter, by
itself, the political culture of corruption
in our countries. This has not happened.
Neither in Guatemala, nor in Chile, nor in Mexico,
nor in Brazil.

All of these countries – among
others – are ultimately undergoing similar crises, arising
from the clash between the new bodies
fighting corruption and the old political culture. Their coexistence is unsustainable. Many
observers believe that the existing political
culture will necessarily give in
to these new bodies. But this is
a risky bet. The next wave
may very well be one of institutional setbacks led by the old corruption colonels.

Demonstrations
fired by righteous indignation against
corruption are essential for political change. But they are not sufficient. If there is not a determined effort to
carry through a true transformation
of the political culture, to radically
change how campaigns are financed, and to create new forms of citizen engagement in politics, these mobilizations could be captured by
profiteers who promise change, so that everything remains the same.

This article was previously
published by Asuntos del Sur.