In an interview with the EFE agency, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo de León spoke about the situation in Ecuador and the fight against organized crime groups.

“What is happening in Ecuador is a demonstration of the risks of the fatal combination between corruption and organized crime,” said Arévalo, a renowned progressive academic whose arrival as Guatemala’s head of state promises, according to all analysts, a significant change in the situation. the country’s political trajectory.

“We must understand that corruption is not a problem of poor management of public resources, but a problem for a country’s security through the threat to its institutions,” he said of the intimidation of democracies that some face. countries, especially Ecuador.

Guatemala also faces significant challenges in citizen security, but with a specific problem of violence and organized crime.

Bernardo Arévalo, sworn in as president of Guatemala until 2028 after a bumpy transition

“Our country’s insecurity profile is completely different from that of other countries in the region,” explained the Guatemalan president, whose government plans to “develop specific strategies for each of these problems.”

Arévalo makes these statements on the same day that the Ministry of the Interior carries out a mega operation in the Pavón prison, the largest penitentiary center in the country, with an overcrowding of 387 percent, in which 1,500 officers of the National Civil Police took part. specialized units of the penitentiary system.

The goal is “to conduct an investigation into electronic equipment that allows extortion gangs to operate from prisons,” the president explained.

“Similarly, we are working to strengthen border control to regain space lost to organized crime gangs, including drug traffickers, and prevent smuggling from systematically entering the country,” he added.

Arévalo also indicated that his country has not had conservative but corrupt governments.

“By calling them conservative you are doing them a favor. “We haven’t had conservative governments, we’ve had corrupt governments that disguised themselves as ideology,” says the new Guatemalan president, who took office 12 days ago after a tumultuous five-month transition that almost led to a coup. .

The support of the international community counterbalanced the intimidation of some of the country’s political, legal and business elite against Arévalo and his party, the Semilla Movement, which emerged from the 2015 anti-corruption protests that led to the resignation of the president led. , later sentenced to 16 years in prison and currently out on bail. (JO)