The Guatemalan Court confirms the candidacy of Zury Ríos, daughter of the dictator Ríos Montt

Zury Ríos during a campaign event in Guatemala City, on May 13.RR SS

The Constitutional Court of Guatemala has confirmed the candidacy for the presidency of Zury Ríos, the former deputy and daughter of the dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. The registration of Ríos, whose security proposal nods to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, was challenged based on the constitutional norm that prohibits the electoral participation of relatives of the coup leaders, an argument that has truncated his previous attempts to dispute the presidency. from Guatemala.

In its analysis, the court has indicated that the prohibition is temporary and its application is limited to cases of return to constitutional order, that is, to the election after the coup, but not to subsequent periods.

Ríos is the youngest daughter of José Efraín Ríos Montt, who came to power in a coup on March 23, 1982, and ruled until August 7, 1983. Ten years ago, Ríos Montt was found guilty of genocide and crimes of It hurts humanity. However, that sentence was annulled by the constitutional court. Ríos Montt died in 2018, at the age of 91, due to a heart attack.

The decision of the constitutional chamber confirms the candidacy of the majority political alliance, Valor-Unionista, but Ríos does not finish reaching the first places in the polls. The last measurement of the newspaper Prensa Libre, places it in fourth place in the intention to vote.

According to the survey, the leader is Carlos Pineda, a businessman from the province who rose thanks to his campaign on TikTok and who in 2019 sounded like a possible running mate for Mario Estrada Orellana, arrested during an undercover DEA operation and serving a sentence. in the United States for conspiracy to traffic drugs.

Pineda was emerging as the presidential candidate of the Cambio party, made up of the children of Manuel Baldizón, a former congressman and former presidential candidate who served a sentence for money laundering in the United States. After serving his sentence, Baldizón returned to Guatemala and his relationship with Pineda broke down.

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Finally, Pineda ran for the Citizen Prosperity party and his route to the elections on June 25 advanced without major obstacles, until he was positioned with 23.1 of the voters’ preference. Then, the Cambio party filed legal actions challenging the way in which he was proclaimed and registered as a presidential candidate. This Friday the Contentious and Administrative Court annulled his candidacy, although this resolution is not final and Pineda will appeal to the Constitutional Court.

D-day for ballot printing

To date, there are 23 presidential binomials in the race and May 25 is the deadline for printing ballots. The court announced that the names of candidates whose participation is covered by court decisions will be printed.

If Pineda were to be definitively left out, Ríos’ route to ascend would have two opponents to beat: Sandra Torres of the National Unity of Hope and Edmond Mulet, of the Cabal party, who was sanctioned by the prosecutor’s office led by Rafael Curruchiche. by the US, he initiated a process for obstruction of justice and whose progress threatens his electoral participation. The case has to do with Mulet’s pronouncements in favor of press freedom and in support of the president of elPeriódico, Jose Rubén Zamora, and the journalists in exile.

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