Jimmy Morales, a former TV comedian who has never held office, swept to power in Guatemala’s presidential election on Sunday after milking public anger over a corruption scandal that deepened distrust of the nation’s political establishment.
The 46-year-old Morales overwhelmingly beat center-left rival and former first lady Sandra Torres in a run-off vote despite his lack of government experience and some policy ideas that strike many as eccentric.
The headquarters of Morales’ center-right National Convergence Front (FCN) party erupted in celebration as official returns showed he had about 68 percent support in a landslide victory.
Photo: AFP
Voters pointed to widespread discontent with Guatemala’s political class, compounded by a UN-backed investigation into a multimillion-dollar customs racket that led last month to the resignation and arrest of former Guatemalan president Otto Perez.
“As president I received a mandate, and the mandate of the people of Guatemala is to fight against the corruption that is consuming us,” Morales said on Sunday night.
The US government has strongly supported the UN-backed investigators and their success has helped push against corruption in Central America, where economic hardship and gang violence spurred an exodus of migrants to the US.
However, the anti-graft fervor has also led to the election of an unknown quantity in Guatemala. It is unclear how Morales will tackle gang violence or try to stem the flow of US-bound migrants.
Morales was already a household name following a 14-year stint on a popular TV comedy and the self-proclaimed centrist from a humble background wooed voters with promises to tackle corruption and hand out millions of smartphones to children.
“We were tired of the same faces of people who get rich off our money,” said Eduardo Tablas, a maintenance man who voted for Morales. “He knows that if he does something corrupt, all of Guatemala will be demanding that he resign.”
Last year, Morales quit his TV show, which centered on skits and lewd jokes, to run for the presidency.
Back in April, he barely registered in opinion polls, but he soon surged as both Perez’s government and a candidate who was then leading the presidential race became mired in corruption probes.
Morales further targeted voter frustration with Guatemala’s failing institutions by pledging to tag teachers with GPS devices to ensure they attend class.
He has also floated the idea of reviving a historic land dispute with neighboring Belize.
Such plans exposed Morales to ridicule from critics, and he also had to downplay ties between his FCN and the army, which was blamed for atrocities in Guatemala’s 1960-1996 civil war.
Morales’ rival Torres warned voters that the country needed experience, not a maverick.
“Guatemala is not a comedy,” she said during the campaign.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not