Guatemala’s new president

Guatemala’s new president

No joke

The election of a comedian is a gamble

Oct 31st 2015



JIMMY MORALES’S previous political campaign ended in disappointment. In 2011 he finished third in a race to become mayor of Mixco, winning just 13,000 votes in a town of 700,000 people. His latest attempt was more successful: on October 25th he was elected Guatemala’s president, trouncing his rival, Sandra Torres, in a run-off with nearly 70% of the vote.

Until recently, Mr Morales (pictured) was known as a television comedian, not a politician. Alongside his brother Sammy, he was the star of “Moralejas” (“Cautionary Tales”), a weekly show lampooning Guatemalan stereotypes. In one episode Mr Morales played Neto, a country bumpkin who inadvertently becomes president. In another sketch, he and Sammy tell of crossing the United States border dressed as a cow, but turning themselves in to escape an amorous bull. “I’ve made you laugh for 20 years,” he recalled during his real-life campaign. “I promise that if I’m president, I won’t make you cry.”

Guatemalans have reasons to be upset. In April details emerged of a racket at the customs agency, in which officials received kickbacks in exchange for reducing import duties for companies. The scandal triggered months of demonstrations against the government, which culminated in September in the resignation and arrest of the president, Otto Pérez Molina. Guatemala also suffers high rates of malnutrition and crime, and its schools are lousy.

Mr Morales, who proclaimed himself to be “neither corrupt, nor a thief”, owes his election to revulsion against the political elite. When rivals taunted him for his inexperience he replied that his lack of political connections made him the right person to tackle corruption. He promised to extend from two years to six the mandate of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, a United Nations-backed investigative team that uncovered the customs scandal, and said he would retain the attorney-general, Thelma Aldana, who has led the prosecution of the ex-president. Mr Morales also pledged to provide more funding for the justice ministry, make government spending more transparent and audit government agencies.

More:
http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21677249-election-comedian-gamble-no-joke