Guatemala wobbles on the Death Penalty

A summer of particularly violent unrest sparked renewed debates about capital punishment in Guatemala earlier this year. Right-wing political parties like the Libertad Democrática Renovada and Partido Patriota argued that reinstating the death penalty would act as deterrent to crime and help restore order in the troubled central American Republic.

On the 5th of October, Guatemalan Congress approved a motion to reinstate capital punishment, a move which would have ended the country’s decade-old moratorium.

One month later, however, on the eve of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, President Álvaro Colom vetoed the proposed legislation, stating that he did not believe capital punishment improved national security and did not consider he had the right to send anyone to death.

This is a very positive step in the global fight for abolition, but the strength of the pro-death penalty opinion in Guatemalan politics should not be underestimated. Indeed, with presidential elections coming up in 2011, liberal-thinking Guatemalans should be on their guard.