Taking the packed public bus for three hours daily from Antigua to Guatemala City and back, one hears many contrasting views about Guatemala’s human rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner and now presidential candidate Rigoberta Menchú Tum.

In the countryside surrounding Mazatenango, one conservative Guatemalan woman, who obviously had a deep-seeded disdain for Menchú, laughed mockingly when she alluded to Menchú’s possible presidency. She claimed that Guatemala, in fact, never had a civil war and that the guerrillas and the indigenous people had been just as much, if not more, the aggressors as the government. She also resented the fact that indigenous people like Menchú were always seen as victims.

An elderly wealthy mother, who is close friends with Guatemala City’s current mayor and former president, Álvaro Arzú, complained about the reparations given by the government to civil war victim’s family members, a war which many human right’s organizations have dubbed a genocide and which cost the lives of almost 200,000 civilians. She claims that the reparations should instead go towards projects for all of Guatemala because, in her opinion, all segments of the country suffered equally during the civil war. Experts have estimated that eighty-five and ninety six percent of the killings committed during this period were at the hands of the military and government-backed death squads, and that the majority of these were aimed at Guatemala’s indigenous population. Before the wounds of Guatemala’s civil war can be healed and progress made against staggering levels of corruption, poverty and inequality, Guatemala needs to come to terms with its violent past. A country that cannot come to terms with its history cannot easily move forward.

Rigoberta for President
Her supporters will say that one way to reunite the country would be to elect one of the most vocal human rights activists in all of Latin America, indigenous leader Rigoberta Menchú Tum. Menchú holds the respect and support of many Guatemalans because she does not allow the constant fear of assassination to stop her from directly accusing baleful authoritarian figures, like Efraín Rios Montt, for their roles in atrocities that took the lives of thousands of indigenous people. Her followers insist that she has the potential to advance the cause of the disenfranchised Guatemalan indigenous population and bring their oppressors to justice. Meanwhile, her critics say that in order to win the presidency and truly create a more peaceful society, she needs to broaden her base beyond the relatively small percentage of the country now rallying under the indigenous flag.

While addressing the country’s ongoing racial discrimination and indicting its ugly past is essential to achieving peace, it cannot be the only plank in Menchú’s platform. Other issues and sectors, especially the large mestizo population, must be included in her dialogue. If Menchú does not broaden her base beyond the indigenous agenda, it will be difficult for her to win the presidency. Even if she is able to empower the Mayan population and achieve victory, a violent backlash may occur if the rest of the country feels that its issues are being ignored at the cost of the advancement of the indigenous cause.

Many people are critical of Menchú as a presidential candidate, referring to her simply as the “Nobel Prize.” To many, she is seen solely as a human rights advocate and not an experienced political leader with a broad enough focus to truly manage the country’s daily affairs. To be more than simply the “Nobel Prize,” Menchú will have to tackle the problems of widespread poverty, malnutrition (according to UNICEF, Guatemala has the highest rate of childhood malnutrition in Latin America and the sixth highest worldwide), growing gang violence, environmental degradation, narcotrafficking, massive government corruption, and an economy largely dependent upon over-sea’s remittances without other internal dynamics. In order to succeed, Menchú will have to implement real solutions to Guatemala’s ongoing problems with plans like her fight against the present government’s neoliberal trade policies, her effort to bring down pharmaceutical prices, and her dedication to protect Guatemala’s tortured environment.

Her Critics Speak
Not all Guatemalans view Rigoberta Menchú’s candidacy with zeal, however. She has her critics both on the left and on the right. As a result of her past relations with the Marxist opponents to the government’s power structure as well as her possible role as an apparent apologist for the Berger government, both rightwing and leftwing Guatemalan factions distrust her pureness of heart. Others cite her relative lack of experience in politics as one of their main reasons to oppose her candidacy. In a nation that has historically been torn by civil division and ravished by corruption, it is essential to have a president who is honest and effective as well as politically stable and confident enough to deal forcefully with the military and drug traffickers. The decision to create her own party rather than to run as the candidate of an existing one may have also hurt her position as it disassociated her from a potential pool of loyal party voters who could have given her their support, as well as dissuaded other voters who might perceive a new party as lacking the historical and traditional foundation necessary to easily survive in a tumultuous political arena. What ever the reason, it is estimated, based on a March 2007 voter survey, that Menchú has only attracted 4% of the vote, though it may be too early in the election cycle to tell.

The Corruption Factor
Perhaps Menchú’s greatest advantage is her lifelong condemnation of the government’s widespread corruption. Such instances of corruption were made plainly evident in the recent murder of three Salvadoran members of parliament and the subsequent killing of their four Guatemalan police assassins for the death of the Salvadorans. Drug violence is not uncommon in Guatemala where brutal gangs, like the Guatemalan affiliate of the Salvadoran founded Mara Salvatrucha (MS 13), battle against a corrupt police force equally guilty of drug trafficking. The most common message coming from the average Guatemalan is that the corrupt series of administrations in Guatemala City have never adequately represented their needs.

Power and money can buy immunity from the law in Guatemala, as is the case with former dictator General Efraín Rios Montt’s efforts to become a congressman in order to avoid prosecution for his role in the deaths of tens of thousands of Mayans. Many Guatemalans do not even bother voting because they feel disenfranchised by the system and are tired of hearing empty promises by shallow candidates, whose only desire is to selfishly reach the potentially personally lucrative office of the presidency. Regardless of their individual political leanings, virtually all Guatemalans bemoan the fact that corruption plagues their country.

Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales, has one major advantage that Menchú lacks—extensive cooperation with his country’s influential trade unionists. In order to have a chance in the September balloting, she must face the arduous task of uniting behind her several leftist political parties which are often at odds with her and each other. In her search for political backing, Menchú will have to unite Guatemala’s leftist parties, including MAIZE (Movement of the Ample one of the Left), EG (Encounter by Guatemala), and UNRG (Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity) with her own indigenous party, Winaq, to improve her prospect for success in this year’s elections. She will also have to capture some of the momentum now being enjoyed by current frontrunner, and National Union of Hope (UNE) party leader, Álvaro Colom. While she will most likely be able to take the Western highlands, where Colom won the largely indigenous vote in his 2003 loss to Oscar Berger, she will have to capture some of his centrist supporters as well.

While Colom is the most progressive of the other candidates in the race, his association with the current government led by President Oscar Berger, along with being touched by the administration’s swirling corruption charges, could weaken his ability to provide the reforms that Guatemala clearly requires. Menchú’s main criticism of the center-left Colom is that he has worked for Berger in spite of being aware of the latter’s tolerance for corruption. Colom has also been accused of accepting government funds to finance his political campaign, a charge which he vociferously denies.

The right-wing Patriotic Party’s candidate, General Otto Perez Molina, whose forces were blamed in a UN report for the murder of 300 Mayans, also has a shot at winning the presidency, primarily as a result of his well-publicized “Mano Dura,” or hard-line, platform against crime. Most Guatemalans are fed up with the country’s pervasive violence and are frightened by the gangs, but some experts would argue that a tainted candidate like Perez Molina is not necessarily the right person to accuse others of criminal activity. To make progress combating crime and corruption, the government must be held accountable to the law. That may be Menchú’s greatest strength—her distance from government corruption as well as her relentless efforts to prosecute the perpetrators of the government-backed genocide.

In a country where some of the most egregious perpetrators of genocide are still in office, where authorities with known drug connections are welcomed by the U.S. State Department, and where the indigenous majority of the population remains oppressed by a venal Creole elite, there exists a need for a leader who represents the aspirations of the people. While Rigoberta Menchú may be an outsider in traditional Guatemalan politics, politics as usual is the last thing that most Guatemalans need.

The Debate Goes On
Many average Guatemalans are excited by the idea of an indigenous female president, while others who laud Menchú as an activist still question her ability as a leader, especially as a political outsider with only a rudimentary grasp of Spanish. However, perhaps an outsider is exactly what a corruption-ridden Guatemala needs. Her tireless work for the native people may finally enfranchise Guatemala’s oppressed majority, ending the racial hierarchy that has for far too long commanded the heights of Guatemala’s politics. Amilcar Pop of the Guatemalan Association of Mayan Lawyers notes that Menchú’s indigenous party, Winaq, “looks for the reconstruction of the Guatemalan state to make structural changes and eradicate all the expressions of institutionalized racism.” While a noble and certainly a necessary goal, it will have to be part of a larger national program which encompasses the problems faced by far more than half the country’s indigenous peoples, if it is to be successful.

Menchú’s candidacy is posing a drastic challenge to the country’s deplorable existing system. Instead of favoring the politician with the lightest skin, wealthiest family connections or back-room political connections, Guatemala may be seeking leadership that prepares to fight for equality and justice for the country’s poverty stricken majority. Over half of Guatemalans, from various ethnic backgrounds, live below the poverty line. That is her principle political audience. While institutionalized discrimination is not Guatemala’s only problem, it lies at the root of many of its others.

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