amna: Guatemala is central
America's most populous country
and critical to U.S. Efforts to
control regional migration.
In August, the country elected
an outsider, an anti-corruption
activist who vows to take on
entrenched elites that have
weakened the judiciary and
persecuted Guatemalan
journalists and activists.
Nick schifrin speaks to the
President-Elect in his first
English language interview since
the election, and reports on the
promise of his presidency.
Nick: When the "Pact of the
corrupt" came for Guatemala's
democracy, they missed the
crusader.
Bernardo Arevalo told
Guatemalans, yes they could
fight corruption.
And in August's election,
Arevalo and his party came out
of nowhere to overcome a
political establishment that had
tried to silence them.
Nick: What the people shout
about is, enough with so much
corruption.
Nick: Arevalo handshaking at
Arevalo won in a landslide by
appealing to young, urban, and
indigenous voters.
He wants to tackle corruption
and build state institutions,
to reduce the root causes that
have pushed more Guatemalans to
migrate, than from any other
Latin American country.
But the entrenched elites have
resisted the people's will.
The attorney general's office
has raided electoral offices and
seized election materials, to
try and destroy Arevalo's party,
and prevent his presidency.
The U.S. Called those actions an
effort to "Undermine the
peaceful transfer of power," and
is imposing Visa restrictions on
corrupt actors.
Arevalo is a former university
professor and an outsider.
But his father is former
president Juan Jose Arevalo, who
gave birth in the 1950's to
Guatemala's first "Democratic
spring" after a century of
dictatorship.
Bernardo Arevalo's party is
called seed movement, that hopes
to birth a new spring for
democracy.
Thank you very much.
Welcome to the newshour.
You received a resounding
mandate in this election but you
will face a relentless campaign
against your party including
another radon electoral
authorities this past Friday so
are you confident that you will
in fact be sworn in as president
in January?
President-Elect Arevalo: Yes,
I'm very confident.
Legally, there is no question.
Politically, we enjoy a very
high level of support from every
quarter in society.
We know that even though the
corrupt functionaries in the
general office are going to
continue attempting any to
derail the process and deny the
people the electoral result, it
is not going to work.
Nick: Has there been any
evidence behind their
accusations?
President-Elect Arevalo: None
whatsoever.
We have been denied the right to
defense because they basically
have not granted us access to
the case.
They don't have any solid
evidence and they are just
spreading innuendo around our
case.
Nick: You have called it a coup
d'etat.
Is that what you think is
happening?
President-Elect Arevalo: A coup
d'etat is the moment at which a
state institution alters
constitutional order and that is
what is happening.
Their hope is that eventually,
there will be some sort of
reversal or alteration of the
electoral result so that those
who have been elected to take
office will not be able to do
so.
And that is a coup d'etat.
Nick: U.S. Officials I speak to
hope that Visa restrictions have
sent a message to entrenched
interests in the private sector
especially.
Do you think that is the case?
President-Elect Arevalo: We have
been working with the private
sector in order to begin to
identify common efforts for
development in the future.
We know that many in the private
sector are willing and really
interested in collaborating with
our government in this new
vision for development we are
bringing forward.
But there might be other
specific actors in the private
sector that might still be
acting in an undemocratic way.
That is something.
Nick: You have received death
threats.
Some in the U.S. Government I
talked to are concerned about
your security.
Is the U.S. Helping with your
security and are you concerned
about your own security?
President-Elect Arevalo: We have
received threats, death threats
that have been given to us
officially and these have
resulted in the state providing
enhanced security apparatus that
we are working now with the
collaboration of the united
States.
Geoff: Assuming -- Nick:
Assuming you become president,
they will not be a majority.
The other parties have not
indicated that they will work
with you.
The judiciary apparently is
against you and even that
attorney general we spoke about
will stay in power.
How will you move forward with
your agenda despite those
challenges?
President-Elect Arevalo:
Political alignments that were
there before the electoral
results are already beginning to
change because previous
political alignments were
sustained by the possibility of
having access to corrupt funds
and this is disappearing because
we have control over the budget
and we are not going to allow
corrupt actors to have control
over the budget.
And on the other hand, we cannot
rely on a government solution
that is based exclusively in our
relationship between congress
and executive.
We have to find ways in which we
build coalitions of social
actors that support an agenda
for development and this is the
one that is brought forward to
the attention of the political
parties in congress.
Nick: And yet as you know,
across decades, when leaders
have tried to fight corruption,
corruption has fought back, from
when your father was president,
there have been repeated
backlashes all the way to more
recent U.N. Efforts that
included high-profile
prosecutions and attentions.
Why do you think your reform
agenda will not share the same
fate?
President-Elect Arevalo: The
future is not a repetition of
history.
We see time and again that
societies that have had these
type of problematic paths and
problems actually find their way
out of them and we believe that
this is the moment for
Guatemalan society and that it
is our duty as a government to
try to foster these changer
relations in order to break the
vicious circle that has changed
our country into poverty and
corruption.
Nick: One of the efforts the
U.S. Hopes to partner with you
on is migration.
How do you propose to work with
the U.S. To stem mimiation?
President-Elect Arevalo: First
of all, we have to understand
that we are dealing with a
regional problem.
We have to to understand the
problem of migration both in
terms of the reasons why people
continue to escape from their
countries, this is because of
poverty or violence or a
combination of both, and then
have mechanisms to address these
structural reasons.
Nick: Your surprise election, if
you don't mind me calling it
that, your background has led
some here in Washington to
believe you are, at least hope
you are, a transform at figure.
Do you think you are?
President-Elect Arevalo: That's
clearly what we intend to do,
not only me, but my running
mate, Dr. Herrera, and our
party.
We came into politics because we
want to transform the life of
Guatemalans for the better so
yes, we believe and we are going
to be a transformative force in
Guatemala.
Nick: What do you think your
victory, your movement means
when it comes to those who are
so worried about antidemocratic
forces gaining momentum across
the region?
President-Elect Arevalo: I think
that we have to understand that
what the people in the region
want is transformation, change
in their livelihoods.
They need political systems that
respond and addresses their
needs.
And that we need democratic
institutions to be able to
address those needs.
And that it is our task to try
to find ways into which we can
make our governments in all the
Latin American region responsive
to the needs of the population
so that they are going to
maintain their allegiance to our
democratic institutions.
In Guatemala, we have an
opportunity to build such a
vision.
This is going to be beneficial
to all the countries in the
region as well.
Amna: Thank you very much --
Nick: Thank you very much.
President-Elect Arevalo: You are
welcome.