A liberal businessman who urged voters to reject the country’s military past won a presidential runoff Sunday, turning back a retired general who promised to tackle crime with a “strong hand.”
The soft-spoken Alvaro Colom will take power in a nation racked by drug-related violence and a soaring murder count. Colom, whose party logo was two hands shaped like a dove, promised to attack the root causes of crime, such as poverty.
Colom had centered his campaign on stopping opponent Otto Perez’s promise of a mano dura, or strong hand. The general had pledged to use the military in police functions and impose curfews in the worst trouble spots.
Colom claimed victory after building a 53 percent to 47 percent lead with only a handful of polling sites left to report. The comfortable margin surprised some observers after Colom lagged in the final opinion surveys.
The campaign had been marred by violence as dozens of local candidates and party leaders were killed, although not all the deaths were politically motivated.
But the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal reported no major incidents on Election Day, which was monitored by thousands of national and international observers.
“Thank God, there were no incidents today. Now we can come together with all the parties and work for the good of Guatemala,” Colom said as he made a triumphant entrance to election headquarters late Sunday.
The election had been divisive because Perez led a notorious army intelligence unit during the bloodiest days of a 36-year civil war, which ended in 1996.
Perez, who was accused of knowing about war crimes but denied the charges, ran strong in his first national campaign. The logo of his Patriot Party was a closed fist, appealing to voters who identified security as their top issue.
Colom, of the center-left National Unity of Hope party, countered the mano dura with his own slogan: “Violence is confronted with intelligence.”
Perez said Sunday that he would regroup and try to form a strong opposition party. Earlier, he had told foreign journalists that he would mend fences as he did after the civil war. “I had the ability to sit down with the guerrillas I chased into the mountains with guns. I can sit down with Alvaro Colom,” he said.
Colom prescribes government solutions to education and job creation, and falls more in the camp of Chile and Brazil, liberal governments that have remained friendly with the U.S..
Colom told the Tribune before the election that he welcomed the U.S. as a leader in forging a regional solution to fighting the drug trade.
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oavila@tribune.com
