Guatemala Under Cerezo: A Democratic Opening

GUATEMALA UNDER CEREZO: A DEMOCRATIC OPENING Robert Garcia Guatemala is a bridge between central America and Mexico and by virtue of its strategic location, as well as the significant role it plays regionally, it is of enormous importance to the United States. Unfortunately , U.S.-Guatemalan relations have not always been cordial. Relations have been strained by the civil violence, political chaos, and faulty economic policies that have obtained in Guatemala during the last seven years. Guatemala's harsh military dictatorship and deplorable human rights record made it a pariah even among the nations of its region. Now, on its own initiative, Guatemala is attempting to reform and become an accepted member of democratic Central America. Where it once scorned help from the United States, Guatemala now looks for U.S. assistance and patience in rebuilding and reasserting its national dignity. We in the United States can exercise a beneficial influence on Guatemala's political and economic maturation as long as we remain sensitive to signals from the political leadership there and allow them sufficient leeway to devise and implement their own policies. On 14January of this year Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo was inaugurated as Guatemala's first civilian president in fifteen years. Cerezo withstood slander and political attack and survived multiple assassination attempts before coming to power as the candidate of the centrist Christian Democratic party with 68 percent of the popular vote.1 Cerezo won the 8 December 1985 runoff election against influential newspaper publisher Jorge Carpió Nicolle, candidate for the moderate National Union of the 1. "Centrist Wins Big in Guatemala Vote," The New York Times, 9 December 1985. Robert Garcia, a democratic congressman from the Bronx, New York, is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 69 70 SAIS REVIEW Center. The election was pronounced "clean" by observers from all points on the political spectrum.2 Though he beat the odds, Cerezo has no illusions about the task before him. More than most, he realizes that Guatemalan history offers few encouraging precedents for the building of a democracy. The corruption, the failing economy, and the seemingly endless list of human rights abuses in a society often deemed lawless comprise the legacy left to contemporary Guatemala. The main thing Cerezo needs is time. Speaking to journalists and members of Congress on a goodwill tour to Washington following his election last December, Cerezo asked Americans to give him the time to restore a semblance of democratic functioning to his country. At that news conference Cerezo said: "They— the military—will give us the office. We are going to have to recover the power." He also pointed out that if democracy fails in Guatemala, not only does Guatemala stand to lose but the United States does as well. Either a return to military rule or a victory by the insurgents would leave the United States in a difficult position, and the United States cannot remain indifferent in what concerns Guatemala. The success of democracy there is crucial to the region's stability and is in the U.S. interest. If President Cerezo asks the United States not to expect miracles overnight, then we should be patient and support him in whatever ways we can, consistent with our own principles. WITH SOME EIGHT MILLION INHABITANTS, Guatemala is the most populous nation in Central America and the second largest in the area. Native Americans, descendants of the Mayas, representing twenty-two native dialects, comprise about 60 percent of the population. In many ways, Guatemala is two separate nations: one — an Indian nation— is heir to the ancient culture that dominated the region in pre-Columbian America; the other—ladino— is a nation of Hispanics, mestizos, or Indians who have adopted Hispanic customs. The ladino population has played the dominant role in the country 's political history. Although Guatemala was ruled by an Indian peasant , Rafael Carrera, from 1838 to 1865, its twentieth-century dictators have been ladinos. General Jorge Ubico, who ruled Guatemala with an iron hand from 1931 to 1944, was the most notorious of these despots. He was forced to step aside by fellow officers in the Guatemalan army who felt it was time to end his corrupt...