Guatemalan Vice President-elect: ‘Corruption is tearing us to pieces’
David Toro Escobar
Guatemala City, Sept 6 (EFE).- The Vice President-elect of Guatemala, Karin Herrera, promises a head-on approach against state corruption starting in January 2024 after the inauguration of Guatemala’s new government.
Herrera also hopes her performance will motivate other women to participate in politics.
In an interview with EFE, the Vice President-elect said that the government of President-elect Bernardo Arévalo de León will vigorously fight corruption.
“Corruption is tearing us apart because (corrupt officials) have used the institutions to strengthen their interests without consideration,” said the 55-year-old politician and chemist-biologist.
The vice president-elect is aware that the old corrupt practices “cannot be wiped out with a magic wand” and that new measures “will be met with resistance from actors who have placed obstacles in the way of the country’s progress.”
Nevertheless, Herrera remains optimistic, asserting that “dialogue” can “sensitize officials forced by corrupt actors to jump off those boats and work with us for the country.
According to her, the new government plans to improve free access to public information, a code of ethics “that contracted officials will have to sign,” and two special commissions to fight corruption.
OTHER PRIORITIES ON THE HORIZON
Although the priority of the Arévalo and Herrera government is the fight against corruption, the new vice president stressed that in her first 100 days, she will try to advance “a security plan for women with the Secretariat against Violence, Sexual and Human Trafficking” and implement “plans for migrants deported from the United States.”
Herrera Aguilar will be the second female vice president in Guatemala’s history, after Roxana Baldetti (2012-2015), who was jailed in 2015 for several multimillion-dollar corruption cases.
“I hope that my participation will motivate other women and that they see that you don’t have to fit certain stereotypes when you genuinely intend to help others,” she stressed.
The vice president-elect, who has spent three decades in academia teaching and researching at the University of San Carlos, the only state university in Guatemala, says that her goal is “to be a vice president who the people feel through service and openness to dialogue.
WAITING TO TAKE OFFICE
After the recent elections, the National Prosecutor’s Office moved to cancel Herrera and Arevalo’s party to prevent participation due to an alleged case of false signatures in 2018.
During the interview, the judicial attack on the electoral process in Guatemala “has no legal logic,” said Herrera.
The Vice President emphasized that Arevalo’s entry into power is “about the will of the people” and “transcends a single party.”
The transition process between Arévalo de León and the current president, Alejandro Giammattei, began on Monday under the supervision of the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, who was present in the Guatemalan capital because of the uncertainty surrounding this process due to the attempts of the Public Prosecutor’s Office to suspend the winning party, Movimiento Semilla. EFE
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