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GUATEMALA ELECTS BERGER WITHOUT LEGISLATIVE MAJORITY.

Article Excerpt
Four years after leaving office as mayor of Guatemala City and swearing he would never return to politics, Oscar Berger won a runoff election on Dec. 28 and is now president of Guatemala. Berger will be sworn in Jan. 14. The pro-business, center-rightist bested the center-leftist Alvaro Colom in a decisive victory.

Restoring the business sector to its former influence will be high on Berger's agenda. "Everyone will have to get to work immediately; we can't lose even one minute. A great effort will be made to make this country more competitive so that Guatemalans have more money in their pockets," he said.

Berger takes over from populist Alfonso Portillo, whose hostility to the business sector resulted in a total breakdown in communication between the government and the private sector during the past four years.

Berger needed a good deal of goading to run for the presidency after a thorough whipping by Portillo four years ago led him to retire to his cattle ranch (see NotiCen, 2000-01-13). Some of the richest and most powerful businesspeople in the country put together a coalition, the Gran Alianza Nacional (GANA), to run him as their candidate. As mayor, Berger was a member of the then ruling Partido de Avanzada Nacional (PAN).

With no party gaining a congressional majority, GANA will have to come to an accommodation with the PAN and the Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE). A coalition knit from these yarns will restore the blanket of conservatism and private wealth that swaddled the...

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