Source: The Nation
With its government about to fall, Guatemala is finally questioning the neoliberal orthodoxy of the post–Cold War world.
UPDATE—Thursday, Sept. 3, 11:50 am: As predicted, Pérez Molina has resigned. Stripped of his immunity, charges of corruption related to widespread custom fraud were brought against him. It’s unclear what comes next, or if national elections — not just for president but for pretty much every legislative and municipal post — will go forward on Sunday. There’s also reports that the CICIG is investigating Álvaro Arzú, a former president, current mayor of Guatemala, and paterfamilias of one of Guatemala’s most historic oligarch families. Who knows where this all may lead…
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The post–Cold War settlement put into place in the Central American countries of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala—neoliberal “free trade” economics combined with limited constitutional democracy—is coming apart.
In El Salvador, gang violence, itself a direct consequence of US Cold War policies, is making the country nearly ungovernable. In Honduras, the 2009 coup is still unresolved, with waves of mass protest alternating with waves of state repression. And in Guatemala, the nationalization of social protests (which previously had been localized mostly around opposition to intensified resource extraction) has just scored a major victory: In response to a national strike, Congress yesterday voted to strip the president, Otto Fernando Pérez Molina, of his immunity, which means he surely will be brought up on corruption charges (his vice president has already resigned, and a number of ranking officials have fled the country). He will soon fall, surely to be soon given a shove by the US embassy, which while appreciating his “free trade” law-and-order creds, didn’t like the stubborn independent streak Pérez Molina had when it came to questioning the insanity of Washington’s main orthodoxy: the drug war.