by the El Reportero wire services
Álvaro Colom
GUATEMALA CITY– Promising to fight violence and drug trafficking, Álvaro Colom took control of his racked-by-crime country on Monday.
A center-left business Colom, said he would use social programs, would fix the court system, and crackdown on money laundering to combat the Central American countryʼs ills.
“You canʼt run a country if there is no justice,” he said at a swearing-in ceremony attended by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and other Latin American leaders.
Over 6,000 people were murdered last year in the country of 13 million people. Few criminal cases are ever solved.
Critics say the bookish new president is too weak to crush violent gangs that make Guatemala so dangerous.
His National Unity for Hope Party, or UNE, fell short of a majority in Congress, complicating prospects of legal changes.
Colom, 56, beat a right-wing former general who promised to use the army to crack down on crime.
A chain-smoking Colom, who practices a Mayan religion, he has pledged to improve the lot of Guatemalaʼs poor indigenous population.
Over half the children in Guatemala are chronically malnourished despite strong economic fundamentals that benefit a small coffee and sugar growing elite.
Also attending the inauguration were Brazilʼs Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, Nicaraguaʼs Daniel Ortega and Ecuadorʼs Rafael Correa, members of a new generation of leftist presidents in Latin America. (Reuters contributed to this news item.)
Zavala quits Mexican cabinet
Beatriz Zavala Peniche, the social development minister, resigned from the cabinet on 14 January to take a job with the ruling Partido Acción Nacional. Her resignation appeared to take President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa by surprise, even though she was taking a job at the ruling Partido Acción Nacional (PAN). It became clear, however, early today (15 January) that she had in fact been pushed. The government leaked reports claiming that 72% of the Secretaría de Desarrollo Social (Sedesol)ʼs 85 programmes had problems and that a December evaluation of ministersʼ performance over their first year had given the thumbs down to Zavala.
Referendum reverse prompts Chávez rethink
Venezuelaʼs President Hugo Chávez began 2008 in a markedly different manner to 2007. He granted an amnesty to political adversaries linked to the brief coup of 2002; carried out an extensive reshuffle of his cabinet which brought ostensibly moderate ministers to the fore; and promised to drop the more radical proposals rejected by voters in the referendum on constitutional reform on 2 December.
moderate influences in his cabinet – to pursue 21st century socialism. The lat-This time last year, Chávez announced the radicalisation of his Bolivarian Revolutionnationalising strategic sectors of the economy and replacing some of the morest developments are more likely to signal a change of tone rather than a change of direction.
Calderónʼs key year
This is the year that will set the tone for President Felipe Calderón Hinojosaʼs remaining fi ve years in offi ce. The key to Calderón presidency, just as was the case with his predecessor, Vicente Fox, is what happens in the US, and in particular in the US presidential elections.
