Guatemala 2018: Facing A Constitutional Crossroad

Abstract

Guatemalan politics were dominated in 2018 by political strife between the Jimmy Morales administration and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). The most pressing issues in Guatemala continue to be corruption and the weakness of the rule-of-law. The year began with but guarded optimism that CICIG could continue its work despite worries about the President's commitment to democracy, but ended with a constitutional crisis that threatened CICIG's work in Guatemala. With general elections approaching in 2019, democracy in Guatemala hangs in the balance. However, at the end of 2018, the makeup of the election was still in doubt and Guatemala was in a constitutional crisis that has not been resolved.

Presidential Instability in Latin America: Why Institutionalized Parties Matter

“…From September 2018, Guatemala faced a constitutional crisis that pitted the president against the Constitutional Court over Morales’ attempts blatantly to obstruct the CICIG's work. In September 2018, Morales dismissed the Constitutional Court's rule that allowed Iván Velásquez, CICIG commissioner, to re-enter the country after Morales declared him ‘persona non-grata and a threat to public security’, whereas in January 2019 the Constitutional Court overruled Morales’ unilateral decision to terminate the CICIG mandate immediately (Brannum 2019: 274; Masek 2019). The president ultimately won the tug of war: the CICIG mandate was not renewed and came to an end in September 2019, and Morales ‘survived’ in office and finished his tenure in January 2020.…”

Democracia, apoyo ciudadano y nuevas generaciones frente al retroceso democrático en Centroamérica

“…Varios hechos evidencian los procesos de erosión y retroceso democrático en Centroamérica: el golpe de Estado en Honduras en 2009 y sus consecuencias sobre la institucionalidad (Cálix, 2010), el establecimiento de la dictadura de Daniel Ortega en Nicaragua (Acuña Ortega, 2020) y el irrespeto a la legalidad y a los derechos humanos en Guatemala (Brannum, 2019) y El Salvador (Human Rights Watch, 2021; Verdes-Montenegro Escánez y Rodríguez-Pinzón, 2020). Incluso se ha cuestionado si Costa Rica, antes llamada "paraíso democrático" (Seligson, 2002), sería inmune a los efectos de nuevas olas de radicalismo político y polarización (Vargas Cullell y Alpízar Rodríguez, 2020).…”