“Organized crime and drug trafficking is pushing politicians in their offices so that they operate in their favor,” declared Arévalo de León, during a discussion on corruption in the International Security Conference celebrated in Munich (Germany).
He Guatemalan president He stated that in his country there are alcaldes y deputies that belong to drug trafficking cartels and highlighted that “the level of penetration of crime in the political system is very great“.
During the first month of the mandate of Arévalo de Leónthe Guatemalan Police seized more than 600 kilograms of cocaine and has captured three alleged drug traffickers who have an extradition order pending US Justice.
During the conference, Arévalo de León shared some points of view with the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Nikolai Denkov; the vice president of Transparency International, Ketakandrian Rafitosonand US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.
Arévalo de León, who assumed power on January 14, assured that his electoral victory was under attack by “a system of corruption that has governed the country for more than 30 years“.
In September 2023, Arévalo de León publicly accused the attorney general of Guatemala, Consuelo Porras Arguetato try a “coup” against him with a series of Judicial actions to undermine his path to the presidency.
“They tried to reverse the elections. That raised resistance from the population headed by the indigenous people of Guatemala“, the president detailed during his intervention.
The new president Guatemalan came to power with the promise of combat state corruption and “recover the democratic institutions“.
According to reports from international organizationsGuatemala suffers a severe “democratic deterioration“, characterized by the violation of human rights y corruption high level in the public institutions.
Arévalo de León is considered the first social democratic president of Guatemala and during his first month in office he denounced the discovery of more than 800 ghost squares within State institutions and has focused on renewing the security forces.
How to stop migration
Respect to economic situation of GuatemalansArévalo said that we must generate better conditions to stop migrationespecially for the youths.
“The youngest are escaping poverty, we want them to stay. Are the demographic bonus that we need and for that we have to create conditions,” declared Arévalo.
According to the Guatemalan president, the bilateral work with the “partner countries” es fundamental to attack the “roots of the problem“.
“We have to work on infrastructure, electricity and roads, but this is something we cannot do alone. We have to work with partner countries to improve our abandoned regions“added Arévalo de León.
And he explained that “currently 20% of Guatemalans (3 million people) they live in the United States and at the same time they are a great economic force because of sending remittances“.
Furthermore, the president of Guatemala added that another immigration challenge for the country is to be a transit nation for Central American migrants, Ecuadorians and Venezuelans.
“We have to work with the countries of the region to improve human conditions, dignity and opportunities to mitigate large flows current migrants“said Arévalo de León, who assumed the presidency of Guatemala on January 14th.
Since 2022, Guatemala has received thousands of Venezuelan migrants who have encountered a immigration wall due to restrictions imposed at the US borderbeing trapped in the Central American country.
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