Guatemala: Back to the streets

CENTRAL AMERICA - Report 23 Nov 2020 by Francisco de Paula Gutiérrez and Felix Delgado

Major civil protests asking for the resignation of President Alejandro Giammattei and opposing the large deficit in next year´s budget took place in the streets of Guatemala City and some other major domestic locations this weekend. As usually happens in events of this type, small groups took a more violent approach and attacked the Congress, setting fire to parts of the structure.

Although the approval of the budget with a relatively large deficit was the explicit trigger factor, there is no doubt that there are other reasons to explain the behavior of the civil groups behind the protest. Perceived government corruption, aggravated by some opacity in the handling of the resources for the pandemic, seems to have been an important factor. The distribution of funds in next year´s budget, with relatively low allocations to some social programs, is another factor, especially because it is not a restrictive budget. In recent years, the budget- deficit-to-GDP ratio has been below 2.5%, while next year it is estimated at 4.6% of GDP, following a more than 6.0% fiscal deficit in this year.

The protests highlighted another problematic issue...

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