Otto Pérez Molina

Otto Pérez Molina
President of Guatemala Elect
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 January 2012
Vice President	Roxana Baldetti
Preceded by	Álvaro Colom
Personal details
Born	1 December 1950 (1950-12-01) (age 60) Guatemala City, Guatemala
Political party	Patriotic Party
Alma mater	School of the Americas Inter-American Defense College
Military service
Rank	Brigade General

Otto Pérez Molina (born 1 December 1950)^{[citation needed]} is a Guatemalan politician and general who won the 2011 presidential election as the Patriotic Party (Partido Patriota) candidate.^[1] As an army officer before entering politics, he served as Director of Military Intelligence.

Military career

Pérez is a graduate of Guatemala's National Military Academy (Escuela Politécnica),^[2] the School of the Americas^[3] and of the Inter-American Defense College.^[4] During his time in the army he served as director of military intelligence and inspector-general of the army. In 1983 he was a member of the group of army officers who backed Defence Minister Óscar Mejía's coup d'état against de facto president Efraín Ríos Montt. While serving as chief of military intelligence in 1993, he was instrumental in forcing the departure of President Jorge Serrano after Serrano attempted a "self-coup" by dissolving Congress and appointing new members to the Guatemalan Supreme Court. In the wake of that incident, Guatemala's human rights ombudsman, Ramiro de León, became president and appointed Pérez as his presidential chief of staff, a position he held until 1995. Pérez also represented the military in the negotiations that led to the 1996 Peace Accords, putting an end to Guatemala's 30-year-long Civil War. Between 1998 and 2000 he represented Guatemala on the Inter-American Defense Board.

General Pérez retired from active military duty in January 2000.

Political career

On 24 February 2001, he founded the Patriotic Party.^{[citation needed]} In the general election of 9 November 2003, the PP aligned itself with two other parties in the Grand National Alliance and Pérez was elected to Congress as a national-list congressman.^{[citation needed]}

He was the candidate of the Patriotic Party in the 2007 presidential election, campaigning under the slogan "Mano dura, cabeza y corazón" ("Firm hand, head and heart"), advocating a hard-line approach to rising criminality in the country. After receiving the second-largest number of votes in the initial contest on 9 September, he ultimately lost the election to Álvaro Colom of the National Unity of Hope in the second round on 4 November 2007.^[5]

In November 2011, he was elected president with 54% of the vote.^[6]

Accusations of human rights abuses

In July 2011, Guatemalan indigenous organization Waqib Kej presented a letter to the United Nations accusing Pérez of genocide and torture allegedly committed in Quiché in 1982.^[7][8] Among other evidence, they cited a 1982 documentary in which a military officer whom they claim is Perez Molina is seen near 4 dead bodies, allegedly tortured prisoners.^[9]

Otto Perez with Roxana Baldetti received credentials accrediting them as candidates for President of Guatemala 2011

Attacks on Pérez's family and associates

On 11 November 2000, Pérez's son, Otto Pérez Leal, was attacked by gunmen while driving with his wife and infant daughter.^{[citation needed]} On 21 February 2001, three days before Pérez was scheduled to launch his new political party, masked gunmen attacked and wounded his daughter Lissette.^{[citation needed]} The same day, masked gunmen shot and killed Patricia Castellanos Fuentes de Aguilar, who had just departed her house after meeting with Pérez's wife, Rosa María Leal.^{[citation needed]} Human rights groups claimed that the attacks were politically motivated.^[10][11]

During the 2007 presidential campaign, several members of the Patriotic Party were killed by armed assailants, including a 33-year-old indigenous woman, Aura Marina Salazar Cutzal, who was secretary to the party's congressional delegation and assistant to Pérez.^[12][13]

References

1. ^ "Ex-General Elected President In Guatemala". National Public Radio. 2011-11-06. http://www.npr.org/2011/11/06/142084176/ex-general-elected-president-in-guatemala. Retrieved 2011-11-06. 
2. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
3. ^ "Notorious Guatemalan School of the Americas Graduates". Derechos.org. http://www.derechos.org/soa/guat-not.html. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
4. ^ "Apoyo Crónica Guatemala.- Otto Pérez Molina, el general retirado que apuesta por "mano dura" para resolver los problemas." (in Spanish). Europapress.es. 2007-09-08. http://www.europapress.es/noticia.aspx?cod=20070908101612&ch=69. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
5. ^ "Guatemala heads for run-off vote". BBC News. 2007-09-10. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6986834.stm. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
6. ^ "Ex-general wins Guatemalan presidential election". CBS News. 2011-11-06. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-57319423/ex-general-wins-guatemalan-presidential-election/. Retrieved 2011-11-06. 
7. ^ Ian Bremmer (July 21, 2011). "In Guatemala, troubles ahead and troubles behind". Foreign Policy. http://eurasia.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/07/21/in_guatemala_troubles_ahead_and_troubles_behind. Retrieved 23 July 2011. 
8. ^ "Denuncian a Pérez Molina por genocidio y tortura de indígenas en Guatemala" (in Spanish). Europa Press. July 20, 2011. http://www.europapress.es/latam/guatemala/noticia-guatemala-denuncian-candidato-perez-molina-genocidio-tortura-indigenas-guatemala-20110720220454.html. Retrieved 23 July 2011. 
9. ^ Asier Andrés (July 7, 2011). "Harbury pide a relator de ONU que investigue a Pérez". El Periodico de Guatemala. http://www.elperiodico.com.gt/es/20110707/pais/197814. Retrieved 17 September 2011. 
10. ^ http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/wha/8344.htm
11. ^ http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18333.htm
12. ^ http://www.elperiodico.com.gt/es/20071009/actualidad/44459/
13. ^ http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/08/america/LA-GEN-Guatemala-Election-Violence.php

External links

• Otto Pérez Molina: Patriotic Party profile
• US Government Glosses Over War Crime Accusations Against Leading Guatemalan Presidential Candidate
• Notorious Graduates (of the School of the Americas) from Guatemala
• Guatemalan Election Marred by Violence
• Guatemala: Six Months to Examine the Past and Define the Future
• Guatemala (1983 documentary) Parts 1
• 2 3
• 4 5

Political offices
Preceded by Álvaro Colom	President of Guatemala Elect 2012–present	Incumbent

Persondata
Name	Perez Molina, Otto
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1 December 1950
Place of birth	Guatemala City, Guatamala
Date of death
Place of death