Guatemala: Divorce is not the way to win power

Alfred Kaltschmitt

Prensa Libre

Dynastic politics is becoming increasingly popular in Latin America, said Alfred Kaltschmitt. Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner got herself elected president after her husband, Néstor, and most likely they’d have gone on swapping the job between them if he hadn’t died of a heart attack last year. Now Guatemala’s ruling couple wants to pull off the same trick, with left-wing President Álvaro Colom handing over the job to his wife of eight years, Sandra Torres, so she can carry on his good work. Since the constitution expressly forbids a president’s close relatives to seek election, the pair plan to divorce. Torres tearfully proclaims she’s giving up her marriage “for the sake of the disabled and orphaned, and all the needy of Guatemala.”

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Call me old-fashioned, but isn’t this going too far? Breaking up with her husband to pursue her career ambitions won’t endear Torres to religious voters, especially if the couple go on living together out of wedlock, as most suspect they will. Cynics are asking if the marriage was even genuine to begin with, or whether it was just a scheme by Torres—a “political operator” all her life—to get closer to the top.

The constitutional court should put the kibosh on the idea: It shows a “complete lack of ethics” in the very person we rely on to uphold them.