President Election Protests — What are the protests about?

Guatemalan President-elect Bernardo Arévalo didn’t think he stood a chance. However, the scholarly 65-year-old who ran a corruption-fighting campaign badly overestimated his appeal. He finished second in the June election, prompting a runoff two months later, which he easily won.

Arévalo is the son of former Juan José Arévalo.

Juan José Arévalo , Guatemala’s first democratically elected president in 1945.

He was elected following a popular uprising against the United States-backed dictator Jorge Ubico that began the Guatemalan Revolution. He remained in office until 1951, surviving 25 coup attempts.

Now his Son finds himself in the same position a coup attempt against Guatemala’s democracy, by a corrupt Attorney General.

Bernardo Arévalo was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1958, the fourth of five siblings. During Guatemala’s military governments, which feared his father’s popularity, his family lived in exile. Arévalo grew up in Venezuela, Mexico, and Chile while his father relocated for employment as a professor and amassed support for a second presidential candidacy, which was ultimately foiled by another military coup to prevent elections.

Originally published at https://growyourowncure.org on October 19, 2023.