Retired general Otto Perez wins Guatemala presidential election

Rightwinger takes victory in run-off ballot after promising to send army into battle against drug cartels

guardian.co.uk, Reuters, Monday 7 November 2011

Otto Perez waves as he arrives at Guatemala's electoral office headquarters
to declare his victory in the presidential election. Photograph: Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters

Otto Perez, a retired rightwing general who promised a crackdown on violent crime, has won Guatemala's presidential election, becoming the first member of the military to take power since democracy was restored in 1986.

Perez had 54.5% of votes with results counted from 96% of polling stations. His rival, wealthy businessman Manuel Baldizon, had 45.5%.

Guatemala's electoral tribunal declared Perez the winner late on Sunday and his supporters began celebrating.

It is a clear move to the right for Central America's largest economy and came after leftist President Alvaro Colom failed to contain violent crime or protect the country from Mexican drug cartels using it as a smuggling route.

Perez, 60, won the run-off election after promising he would apply a "firm hand" by deploying troops on the streets and increasing the size of the police force.

Guatemala's murder rate is about eight times that of the United States and many of the country's 14.7 million people want a tougher stance on crime.

"There's even extortion in the schools," said housewife Elsa Guzman, 59. "I trust the army more. The army is not afraid to go out at night but the police don't even go out at night ... that's why we want a military man."

Human rights groups fear Perez's crime-fighting message may have a dark side in a country with a history of military dictatorships and murders by security forces.

The army murdered suspected leftists and committed many massacres of peasants during the 1960-1996 civil war in which about a quarter of a million people were killed or disappeared.

Perez was a commander in some of the most violent areas and there have been allegations that troops under his command committed abuses. He headed a military intelligence unit accused of engineering assassinations of political rivals.

But he was also seen as a progressive officer inside the army and had a key role in supporting the 1996 peace accords that ended the war.

Perez has never been charged with human rights crimes and brushes off the accusations against him. "I can tell you it's totally false," he said on Saturday.

The election campaign focused mainly on Guatemala's battle against street gangs and Mexican drug traffickers moving South American cocaine up through the country to the United States. Military experts say cartels and gangs control around 40% of Guatemala, a huge challenge for the next president.

Perez wants to hire 10,000 new police and 2,500 more soldiers to tackle crime, a model similar to that used in Mexico to combat the cartels.

Such a policy has different implications in Guatemala, where a United Nations-backed "truth commission" found that 93% of civil war atrocities were committed by the state.

Even since the war ended police have been suspected of executing young street gang members. Guatemala has begun to prosecute military officers implicated in the worst civil war abuses although Perez's victory will fan fears that they may escape justice.

Analysts say a key test will be whether Perez retains crusading attorney general Claudia Paz y Paz, who has pushed ahead with human rights trials.

The new president, who takes office in January, must also address severe poverty affecting more than half the population of the coffee and sugar-exporting nation, which has one of the world's highest rates of chronic child malnutrition.