Guatemalan President-elect Bernardo Arévalo is scheduled to be sworn into office Sunday afternoon. But just like almost every day since his resounding Aug. 20 election victory, the inauguration will be tinged with doubts and tensions.
The still-serving Attorney General, Consuelo Porras, has tried every legal trick in the book to put him on trial or in jail before he takes office. And Arévalo’s Seed Movement party won’t have a majority in Congress, and may not even have formal recognition there.
And it’s not even clear if the leaders of Congress — who oppose Arévalo — will turn up for the inauguration, which could introduce legal doubts, because they are supposed to attend.
Arévalo is an academic, diplomat and the son of a progressive president from the middle of the 20th century, and his election marked a political awakening in a population weary of corruption and impunity.
I’m so skeptical of any positive change in quasi-democratic conditions at this point.