UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Turk expressed his disapproval for the legal prosecutors and Guatemalan nationals that called for the newly elected Guatemalan president Bernardo Arevalo to take office. Those opposed to the president elect claim that the elections were rigged and contained anomalies within the electoral college favoring Arevalo, along with gathering false signatures and wrongly using political funding. Action has been taken to suspend his party from government prosecutors with many claiming that the corruption of Guatemala’s government would further if and when Arevalo is inaugurated, especially since an organization to fight against corruption was dissolved after former president Jimmy Morales’ crimes. As of right now, there is no compelling evidence that there was any wrongdoing, so Arevalo is set to become president.
With Guatemala already not being a stable state, it’s easy to see how this might cause unrest within the Guatemalan people. While some, typically the lower class people who voted, might be happy with this, the ruling elites that have a special hand in governmental affairs will be unhappy if Arevalo truly decided to crack down on corruption. As such, could we predict a change in the country’s economy if the few billionaires that fund their government are unhappy with the situation. It’s only to be a matter of time before the people cross a line and mass protests and riots break out. With many Latin American countries, it’s the fact that they are often underdeveloped and mostly uneducated within their large communities, contributing to the poverty in their country. I believe that a massive restructuring of their government via new leadership ie. Arevalo might help them improve their poverty situation. To put it into perspective, Guatemala’s GDP per capita is around $5,000 while that of the United States is around $70,000.
In class, we have spoken about multilateralism and the liberal approach to diplomacy and cooperation amongst countries. With the UN shedding light on this situation in Guatemala, this inherently liberal, multilateral approach from an IGO serves to mediate the response that the Guatemalan people have and also provide an outside perspective on what is happening. Since the UN is primarily composed of democratic countries, it could be said that they are trying to maintain a democracy as much as they can by instituting Arevalo, the rightful winner, instead of letting rich millionaires control a poverty stricken nation.