"Guatemala needs effective policies, more than dogmas"

We have an electoral democracy instead of a real democracy...

José Carlos Zamora

Between November 2005 and this December there were twelve presidential elections in the Latin American region. The results of the elections in Brazil, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela have modified the political map, giving it a tendency to the left.

Everybody is asking what the cause for the renaissance of these socialist movements is and in what way these new administrations with left tendencies will govern.

In regard to the way in which they will govern, we cannot do anything else than wait and see the results of the development and implementation of their public policies and hope that they are a response to the mandate the electorate has given them and the necessities of their people.

In regard to the cause of these tendency I dare to consider that even though the region has in average more than two decades in the process of democratization, until now it has only reached an electoral democracy – fact that without a doubt must be applauded, but that hasn’t been able to resolve the problems embedded in our region – like inequality, poverty, corruption, the lack of effectiveness of the law and the judicial system, and the incapability of the institutions to answer the social demands.

When going to the ballot box the electorate is not voting in favor of the ideology of the left, the right or the center. The electorate is voting desperately to emerge out of poverty, to put an end to inequality, to eradicate corruption, impunity, protectionism, privileges and organized crime, as well as to improve the quality of education, of health and of the economy through a real free market economy – open and competitive. The population is seeking anxiously a real citizen democracy in the political, economic, social and cultural fields and within the framework of rule of law in which there is transparency and clear and effective laws that apply equally to all.

Ten short months away from the presidential elections in Guatemala, these are the problems that the candidates need to address – no matter what ideology they represent – these are the problems to which they should give categorical answers. If they don’t do this, Guatemalans will keep on losing their democratic convictions.