SAN JUAN SACATEPEQUEZ, Guatemala (AP) – Over the previous decade, Guatemalan presidential candidate Sandra Torres has been drifting rightward on the political spectrum as she repeatedly has tried to win the presidency.
Now, in her third bid, the previous first woman has drafted an evangelical pastor as her working mate and is leaning closely on her agency commitments to retaining abortion and same-sex marriage unlawful in Guatemala.
Her opponent within the Aug. 20 runoff, Bernardo Arévalo of the progressive Seed Movement, additionally has mentioned Guatemala’s abortion ban ought to stay untouched. But he has declined to make any such declaration on same-sex marriage, saying solely that his authorities can be in opposition to any type of discrimination, with out elaborating.
Torres made a latest marketing campaign cease in denims and a nationwide soccer group jersey at a college in San Juan Sacatepequez, an impoverished suburban metropolis of greater than 250,000, the place she advised a number of hundred supporters that she needed the federal government to respect life from conception. She promised she would by no means settle for same-sex marriage, rapidly including that she wasn’t homophobic.
“I want to run this country with the fear of God,” she advised the group.
Torres, 67, leads the National Unity of Hope occasion that when was thought-about the nation’s social democratic occasion however has moved rightward with Torres, although she additionally guarantees many social packages to learn the nation’s “forgotten” poor. Her occasion is the second-largest within the unicameral legislature.
In the administration of her ex-husband, Álvaro Colom, Torres led the federal government’s social packages, giving her vital authorities expertise. His marketing campaign, plus three of her personal, additionally give her an extended historical past of attempting to court docket voters throughout Guatemala.
Torres was the main vote-getter within the first spherical of this 12 months’s presidential election on June 25. Both of her earlier defeats got here within the second-round runoff. So whereas it was no shock to search out Torres in a runoff, her opponent certainly has come as a shock.
In the times earlier than the primary spherical vote, Arévalo, who largely campaigned on rooting out corruption, was barely within the nation’s political dialog. He was polling under 3%, behind seven different candidates. But the outcomes gave him 11% of the vote – sufficient to offer him the second slot within the runoff.
In the primary spherical, Torres’ competitors got here largely from different conservative populists. Now, voters face an actual alternative between conservative and progressive proposals, and Torres is interesting to Guatemalans’ conservative social values at each alternative.
Luis Mack, a political scientist with San Carlos University, mentioned that Torres’ present marketing campaign is a part of a pattern throughout the area of bringing faith into elections. “It is an open manipulation of politics and faith,” he mentioned.
Torres didn’t beforehand have the assist of the nation’s evangelical church buildings, which had been extra carefully related to the administration of outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei, mentioned David Pineda, president of the Guatemalan Secular Humanist Association.
But if Arévalo ought to win, the church buildings can be afraid of dropping the shut relationship that they had with the federal government, and may face unwelcome scrutiny of their funds, Pineda mentioned.
Until he registered as Torres’ working mate, 47-year-old Romeo Guerra was pastor of the Christian Sion Mission church based by his father in Guatemala City. An opposing occasion tried to dam Guerra’s candidacy on the grounds that Guatemala’s structure bars clergy from working for workplace. But the nation’s high court docket allowed it.
Guerra has not been a fixture in Torres’ marketing campaign stops and appears uncomfortable talking outdoors the pulpit. But he just lately met with dozens of evangelical pastors alongside Torres, who has proposed making a ministry of non secular affairs.
Evangelical pastors in Guatemala have a historical past of siding in opposition to leftists, with a few of them disseminating authorities propaganda in opposition to leftist guerrillas in late Nineteen Seventies and early ‘80s during the country’s civil struggle.
Shortly after Arévalo received his place within the runoff, evangelical pastor Sergio Enríquez of Ebenezer Ministries advised his congregation “we have to pray a lot to not allow this communist from (the Seed Movement) to make it.” Other pastors in mega church buildings throughout Guatemala haven’t been as specific however have emphasised points similar to abortion and same-sex marriage, as Torres has carried out.
In San Juan Sacatepequez on a latest Sunday, lots of of Indigenous girls lined up for a free reusable buying bag earlier than Torres was scheduled to talk. Four hours later the candidate arrived in a helicopter.
Torres’ marketing campaign is unabashedly populist, full of guarantees for poor communities. She has mentioned that as president she would distribute 1 million computer systems to schoolchildren, scholarships to cowl college prices and massive baggage of primary foodstuffs delivered month-to-month to households’ doorsteps.
She reminds households that they acquired related baggage of merchandise when she was first woman, and heads nod.
“I remember her very well,” mentioned Azucena Sarpec, holding her 6-month-old in her arms. “When she was in government, years ago, because of her they brought us the solidarity bag” of meals, Sarpec mentioned, including that the promise of extra such baggage was sufficient to earn her vote.
She mentioned that since Torres’ ex-husband left energy practically a decade in the past, the streets that are largely filth haven’t been maintained, and there’s extra malnutrition, poverty and crime.
Now, her household has to pay safety cash to gangs to ensure their security, she mentioned. “They ask for $65 to start and then $45 every month. You can’t do it,” mentioned Sarpec, whose husband works for minimal wage in an meeting plant.
Lázaro Borror, 38, mentioned he got here to listen to Torres in order that he can determine which candidate to assist. He mentioned he believes Torres would distribute baggage of meals if elected, “but I don’t think she’s going to stop corruption.”
Borror mentioned he’s accustomed to candidates making guarantees at election time, however then forgetting those that put them in workplace.
“They only do something the first few months, then they forget us,” he mentioned.
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