Guatemala's Arevalo due to assume presidency with difficult path ahead
By Sofia Menchu
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) — Guatemalan President-elect Bernardo Arevalo is due to be sworn in Sunday for a four-year term, pledging to banish deep-rooted corruption, though he will come up against a divided Congress and string of judicial attempts to block him from wielding power.
Vowing to restore democracy in Guatemala, the most populous country in Central America with 17.1 million people, Arevalo, 65, won the August presidential run-off in a sweeping victory.
In the months after, Guatamala's attorney general — seen as an ally of outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei — has intensified attempts to discredit Arevalo's victory and hinder his transition.
The attorney general has tried to strip Arevalo and his Vice President-elect Karin Herrera of legal immunity, suspend his Semilla party and annul the election. The «coup» attempt, as Arevalo terms it, has drawn tens of thousands of Guatemalans to the streets and the international community, including the United States, has piled vast pressure on Giammattei's administration to proceed with the transition of power.
The events leading up to Arevalo's inauguration underscore Guatemala's fragile rule of law, with the country pushed to the brink of a governance crisis that could limit his ability to rule and keep campaign pledges to root out bad political actors, fight organized crime and create new jobs.
«Problems are not over for Arevalo,» said Roberto Alejos, former Guatemalan Congressional and political analyst.
«They are not going to let him pass any law in Congress and he will have plenty of difficulties governing,» he added.
Despite its overwhelming victory in the presidential elections, Semilla — a social democratic, environmentalist and progressive
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