Guatemala: Rigoberta Menchú running for the long term

The first indigenous woman candidate for president of Guatemala, Rigoberta Menchú, is behind in the polls, but the very fact that she is standing is an important precedent and a sign that the political system is more open, analysts say. "Indigenous people now not only have the opportunity to vote, but also to exercise power," Menchú told foreign correspondents on Aug. 28. The indigenous activist, 48, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 and created the Winaq movement which aims to become a political party, will run in the Sept. 9 elections with businessman Luís Fernando Montenegro as her running mate. They are supported by a coalition made up of Winaq and the center-left Encounter for Guatemala Party, headed by Nineth Montenegro, a lawmaker and founder of the non-governmental Mutual Support Group (GAM) human rights organization. An opinion poll published last week by the newspaper Prensa Libre placed Menchú, the only woman among 14 candidates, in fifth place, with 2.42 percent ratings. According to official figures, 5.9 million Guatemalans will be eligible to cast their votes for president, vice president, 158 parliamentary deputies and 332 mayors. The poll placed Álvaro Colom of the center-left National Union of Hope (UNE) in first place with 22 percent of voter intentions, followed by retired general Otto Pérez Molina of the rightwing Patriotic Party (PP) with 17.5 percent, and in third place Alejandro Giammattei of the governing centre-right Great National Alliance (GANA) with 7.67 percent. If no candidate takes a majority of the vote, a runoff will be held. But Menchú's candidacy transcends the results of the forthcoming elections, political analysts told IPS. "Although she may achieve modest results in terms of votes, her candidacy is important as a sign that the political system, which has traditionally been dominated by 'criollos' (people of European descent), is opening up," Manfredo Marroquín, the head of the Central American Institute for Political Studies (INCEP), told IPS. "We are the voice of the thousands of silenced people, who have no room (in the system) and who only take orders," said Menchú, who emphasised the fact that she is a woman candidate, and an indigenous one, in a country that is "'machista,' racist and excludes people." Officially, 40 percent of the population is indigenous, although non-governmental organizations put the proportion closer to 65 percent. Menchú said that she has been the victim of a smear campaign by her opponents, and that "the rest of the parties are battering us on every side," for instance by tearing down her campaign posters in some communities. Menchú "knows the needs of the Mayan people. She works for the good of indigenous peoples," Margarita Lares, a 54-year-old indigenous woman who travelled from Tecpan, in the west of the country, to attend the final campaign rally on Aug. 26, told IPS. In Constitution Square, in front of the National Palace, the Nobel laureate compared the elections to a "market," criticized politicians who spend millions on winning converts, and said she was proud of having run her campaign "without sponsors," financed only by her supporters. "Our campaign was one hundred percent self-financed, and that gives us the moral right to assert that we represent a dignified option," Menchú said at the press conference. Although according to government figures, the poverty rate in Guatemala is 51 percent, unofficial estimates say the figure is closer to 80 percent. But among indigenous people, the rate is even higher. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal capped campaign spending by each party at 42 million quetzals (six million dollars), but the main parties have already spent more than that, according to Mirador Electoral (Electoral Watch), a collection of organisations monitoring the electoral process. The head of the Indigenous Electoral Observation Mission, Álvaro Pop, told IPS that Menchú is "an indigenous woman who has experienced all the ways in which people are marginalized in this country." Her candidacy has "a significant historical impact, and implies a qualitative advance for democracy," he said. "We want indigenous people to participate as political actors and people with rights. We would like to see a multicultural democracy," Winaq member Otilia Lux, a legislative candidate, told IPS. Out of 158 deputies in the single-chamber Congress, only 13 are indigenous. The birth of Winaq -- which means "balance and integrity" in the Quiché language -- as a political party was an indigenous demand that could not be satisfied before "because of a lack of funding and strong leadership," Lux said. Most of Winaq's members are indigenous people, and the movement plans to constitute itself as a political party "in about a year," said Lux. Its participation in these elections sets an "enormous precedent," confers experience, and is a necessary step towards "participating with greater vigour in the 2012 elections," she said. Nineth Montenegro, Winaq's main ally, appreciated the arrival of new actors on the political scene. "We will try to build a government that includes everybody, seeks to improve collection of taxes, and struggles to achieve security without repressive methods," Montenegro told IPS. The activist lost her husband in 1984, when he was abducted and "disappeared" by the security forces. The front-runners in the polls promise a tough approach to crime in this country, which has one of the highest murder rates in the world. On Aug. 28, Menchú condemned the electoral violence that has claimed the lives of at least 39 activists and candidates from various parties. She announced that the latest victim, murdered on Aug. 27, was Clara Luz López Marroquín, an Encounter for Guatemala candidate for town councillor in the municipality of Casillas, in the south of the country. Some analysts draw parallels between Menchú's candidacy and Bolivia's indigenous President Evo Morales and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. But Lux, who was minister of culture and sports during the administration of Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004), told IPS that "ours is an eminently national platform, which has nothing to do with Morales or Chávez, although it's true that we watch their politics in order to learn from them." Despite the fact that over a decade has passed since Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war (in which 200,000 people were killed) came to an end, the country is still wracked by violence, with killings of women and human rights activists and gang violence. Menchú's father, a leader of the rural Campesino Unity Committee, died when the police burned the Spanish embassy in 1981, when it was occupied by activists. In recent years, Menchú has worked to bring to justice those accused of crimes against indigenous peoples during the armed conflict. Menchú and Luis Montenegro played down the poll results, and said they expected to win at least "15 or 20 seats" in Congress. According to Pop, "Rigoberta has already won," because she managed to create Winaq, which has been "a ghost in the collective imagination of Guatemalans." Although it is not yet formally a political party, it is spreading through the country, weaving networks of participation for indigenous people. "Rigoberta Menchú will be around for a long time yet," the presidential candidate told journalists at the close of the news briefing.