Guatemalan Presidential Voting Delayed

[Judi Lynn]

11:45 PM PST, November 9, 2003


Guatemalan Presidential Voting Delayed

By TRACI CARL, Associated Press Writer


GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalans lined up for hours at polling stations Sunday during the country's second consecutive peacetime presidential elections, turning out in such force that officials had to extend the vote late and delay official results that will determine the future of an infamous former dictator.

The U.S. government has warned that U.S.-Guatemalan relations will suffer if retired Gen. Efrain Rios Montt is given a second chance to lead the country. Pre-election polls show Rios Montt trailing a distant third, but he has said he believes he will win Sunday.

Human rights groups in Guatemala and Spain have accused Rios Montt's former government of carrying out massacres, including the 1981 arson of the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City in which 37 people died. Officials in both countries are investigating the charges. (snip)

(snip) A presidential win would extend Rios Montt's immunity from prosecution, which will expire when his term as senator and president of Congress ends in January. (snip/)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/ats-ap_intl13nov09,1,3780786.story?coll=sns-ap-topinternational

On edit:
Free registration required

[dArKeR]

1. It's none of the US Governments business to be telling foreign citizens

who to vote for in their countries. This is disgusting!

[DUreader]

2. Funny thing about that, dArKeR

http://www.bigleftoutside.com/archives/000224.php

STATE DEPT.'S GUATEMALA PLOY


State Department spokesman Richard Boucher did not refer directly to this period. He said that "in light of Mr. Rios
Montt's background, it would be difficult for the United States to have the kind of relationship with Guatemala that
we would ideally prefer if he were in charge."

Historic Memory Alert:

June 2002: US Ambassador Manuel Rocha publicly threatened a change in US relations if Bolivia were to elect coca grower Evo
Morales in the June 30th presidential electoin. Morales was WAY behind in the polls before Rocha made the threat. Then the votes
are counted. Evo comes a hair fracture from the presidency and the coalition to which he belongs becomes the most important
bloc in Congress. Rocha, soon after, leaves his diplomatic post and, well... should we file a Missing Persons' report? His legacy: His
final boneheaded maneuver.

In any case, after June 30, 2002, the State Department clearly knew: If the State Department criticizes a candidate prior to the
election in a Latin American country during these currently historic times, even if that candidate is behind in the polls, that
candidate's chances of winning the presidency don't decrease... they increase.

Okay, now, fast-forward:

November 2003: State Dept. flak Richard Boucher "pulls a Manuel Rocha" and threatens Guatemala with unspoken
consequences if it elects one candidate two days from now.

That was by design.

Basically, Washington is using the same strategy here as it has brandished regarding the Colombian paramilitaries, and in so
many adventures before and since: Pretend, with words, to be against 'em... but, with deeds, give 'em oxygen.

[arikara]

3. Precisely

They put him in and supported him through his atrocities before. He was their nice little Guatamalan Saddam. And they are getting ever so smart with their manipulations.