Alejandro Giammattei Succeeds Jimmy Morales as President of Guatemala

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On January 14, 2020, Alejandro Giammattei Falla took the oath of office as Guatemala’s new president, replacing outgoing President Jimmy Morales. While many Guatemalans are not optimistic about the country’s probable trajectory under Giammattei, they overwhelmingly rejoiced at the end of Morales’ administration, which most observers say was racked by corruption, cronyism, sexual misconduct, cynicism, and incompetence. Morales had been elected by a huge majority to replace President Otto Pérez Molina, who (along with his vice president) had been forced to step down over a customs fraud scheme. Morales, a former comedian, was seen as a political outsider who could take on the corrupt political establishment. Yet now close to 80% of Guatemalans say he made things worse. Giammattei, who himself had been incarcerated for a short while over a scandal that occurred while he was head of Guatemala’s penitentiary system, and who had run unsuccessfully for president three times before, brings a largely rightwing, tough on crime, anti-abortion agenda to office. Many Guatemalan pundits were generally too busy working through their trauma over the Morales years to offer in-depth focus on Giammattei’s promise, or lack thereof.

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