Bernardo Arevalo was sworn in as president of Guatemala after serious difficulties in the presidential inauguration

CENTRAL AMERICA - In Brief 15 Jan 2024 by Fernando Naranjo
Bernardo Arevalo was sworn as president of Guatemala after serious difficulties in the presidential inauguration. On January 15th, Bernardo Arevalo was sworn as president of Guatemala for a four-year period. The delays were a consequence of the declaration of the 23 legislators of the Semilla Party as independent lawmakers by the previous administration. This prevented the official party from being part of the Congress Board. Samuel Perez Alvarez, Member of the Semilla Party, was elected as Congress President close to midnight. Presidente Arevalo, last night, reaffirmed his commitment to fight corruption and impunity. He also vowed to rebuild Guatemala's democracy free from the political-criminal elites. Last week Arevalo made the announcement of his cabinet. He chose an even number of male and female members for the first time in Guatemala´s history. He also promised to create an autonomous anti-corruption commission to evaluate his government. The new administration faces several challenges. Arevalo will face high expectations related to structural problems like migration, poverty, low tax burden and high informality. He will also have to deal with corruption in previous governments. He announced as one of his first acts, to seek the resignation of the attorney general, Consuelo Porras. We don't see short-term risk of any change in economic policy. The governor of the Central Bank will continue in this post, and the Minister of Finance is a social democrat.

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