( belligerANT ): 09/2011

I will be flying out on Sunday, September 11, 2011, which coincides with the 10th anniversary of 9/11 as well as the presidential elections in Guatemala. Don't ask me why I booked my ticket for that date. I don't know.

It's been interesting watching the campaign unfold over the past few months, especially since there are 10 presidential candidates still standing. The roads have been plastered with billboards and posters. Everything is painted over with slogans and logos: walls, homes, even rocks and trees. There are catchy jingles played through bullhorns atop pickup trucks. In Xela, I saw one political supporter dancing in a pickup truck bed decked out in a full-body furry black bear suit. It hasn't been all fun and games though: at least 35 activists or public office candidates have been murdered during this campaign season.

The polls show retired general Otto Perez Molina of the Patriotic Party with a wide lead over his rivals, a man who was the army's intelligence director during the Guatemalan Civil War and a graduate of the School of the Americas. If he wins, he will be the first military man to become president since army rule ended in 1986. His party slogan of "Mano Duro" (Iron Fist) underneath a clenched fist over a bright orange background makes me a touch uncomfortable.

Patriotic Party | Iron Fist

Especially considering Guatemala's recent history of violence during its 1960-1996 civil war and similarly hard-line governments in the region:

"Iron-fist" policies, characterised by a repressive approach to violent crime, are all too familiar in Central America. They were enforced in El Salvador between 2004 and 2009 by then president Antonio Saca, and in Honduras from 2002 to 2006 by president Ricardo Maduro, both of whom were severely criticised by human rights organisations that accused them of excessive force and abuses against the civilian population in the name of security. . . .

If the PP adopted an iron-fisted approach, the country could see forced evictions, repression of social protests, and support for mining and hydroelectric initiatives to the detriment of local development, rights activist Samayoa said.

I hope there will be limited unrest in Guatemala during and after these elections.