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It would be good to know who has actually been bankrolling his political career. He started out as an alleged leftist, yet ended up in the party of one of the filthiest mass murdering, genocidal vicious killers, and Reagan puppet in the Western Hemisphere. His Wiki: Alfonso Antonio Portillo Cabrera (born September 24, 1951 in Zacapa) is a Guatemalan politician. He served as the President of the Republic of Guatemala from 2000 to 2004.
He took office on January 14, 2000, representing the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG). The party is led by retired general and former military ruler Efraín Ríos Montt.
Early career
Portillo obtained his academic qualifications in Mexico. He received a degree in social sciences from the Autonomous University of Guerrero (UAG) in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, and his doctorate from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City. In the late 1970s he became involved with left-wing indigenous groups in Guerrero and with the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG). During the 1980s he lectured in political science at the university in Chilpancingo, Mexico. During that time, Portillo shot and killed two students. He later claimed that he had shot the students in self-defense. His political opponents, however, asserted that he had killed the two unarmed students in a "bar brawl." He was never charged for the shootings, and in 1995, a Mexican judge declared the case "inactive." <1><2>
In 1989 Portillo returned to Guatemala and joined the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which had replaced the Authentic Revolutionary Party the previous year. The little-known PSD was one of the very few leftist parties that survived the military repression that had characterized the 1970s and 1980s. He then moved to the Guatemalan Christian Democrats (DCG), a center-right formation which at the time was the governing party. In 1992 he was appointed Director of the Guatemalan Institute of Social and Political Sciences (IGESP), a role he held till 1994. He became the DCG's Secretary General in 1993 and was elected as one of their deputies in 1994, and became head of their group in Congress. During this time he also became an editorial adviser to Siglo Veintiuno, one of the two largest-selling daily newspapers.
FRG
In April 1995 Portillo, along with another seven of the DCG's 13 deputies, left the party to become independents after the parliamentary group was accused of corruption. On 20 July 1995 he joined the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG). Its leader, Efraín Ríos Montt, was at the time leader of Congress. When Ríos Montt was constitutionally barred from running in the November 12 presidential election because he had previously taken power through a coup d'etat, the FRG chose Portillo as their candidate. After gaining 22% of the vote in the first round of voting, he lost to Álvaro Arzú in the second round on January 7, 1996. With both candidates promising to finalize the peace negotiations Portillo narrowly lost, garnering 48.7% of the vote. <3> More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonso_Portillo~~~~~~~~~~~~Guatemala: Corruption Timeline
~snip~
November 1999 – Presidential, congressional, and municipal elections are held. Alfonso Portillo of the FRG earns 49 percent of the vote—but not enough for an outright victory in the eleven-way race, which triggers a runoff the following month. Portillo had been clouded with controversy following his admission that he had killed two students while working as a college professor in Mexico, and then fled back to Guatemala to escape trial. Portillo claimed the killings were in self defense. The case was later dismissed after the statute of limitations expired. On the campaign trail, Portillo boasted of the killings, saying he knew how to protect himself and the nation, which was overrun with one of the worst crime rates in Latin America. Guatemala City Mayor Óscar Berger of PAN takes second place with 30 percent of the vote. In a turnout that defies expectations, nearly 54 percent of the electorate votes.
December 1999 – In a runoff presidential election, Alfonso Portillo of the right-wing FRG carries all departments and Guatemala City to take 68 percent of the vote, with runner-up Óscar Berger of PAN earning 32 percent. Portillo comes under fire for his friendship with FRG founder and chairman and former military dictator Ríos Montt.
March 2001 – Following allegations that the FRG illegally manipulated legislation, the Supreme Court strips parliamentary immunity from a number of implicated politicians, including FRG leader and president of Congress Ríos Montt. The scandal emerges when, after Congress passed a 20 percent tax on alcoholic beverages, the law was subsequently published with a 10 percent tax, prompting authorities to investigate whether Ríos Montt and other FRG legislators had intentionally aided the liquor industry.
~snip~
March 2003 – Karen Fischer, the anti-corruption public prosecutor, resigns following pressure from her superiors in the attorney general's office to dismiss a case against President Portillo investigating his involvement in the Panama Connection. The following month, after receiving numerous death threats, she and her family flee to Mexico.
March 2003 – Representatives from the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the Guatemalan government work to form a commission they hope will identify and confront the "parallel government" of organized crime that permeates the police and military in Guatemala.
April 2003 – President Portillo announces the creation of a new Commission to Investigate Illegal Armed Groups and Clandestine Security Apparatus (Comisión para la Investigación de Cuerpos Illegales y Aparatos Clandestinos de Seguridad) to examine threats against human rights activists.
April 2003 – Ríos Montt and his party arrange for the government to pay hundreds of thousands of former members of the paramilitary Civil Self-Defense Patrols for their services during the civil war. The paramilitary unit had been founded by Ríos Montt himself in 1983 to aid the army in its campaign against Mayan rebels. Critics charge that the plan is a vote-buying scheme. More: http://www.globalintegrity.org/reports/2004/2004/countryc408.html?cc=gt&act=timeline~~~~~~~~~~~~Let's not be so critical. Clearly Portillo has some flaws, too! AMID HARASSMENT AND VIOLENCE AGAINST JOURNALISTS, human rights activists, and judges involved in high-profile cases, Guatemala's political stability deteriorated considerably in 2001, and press freedom along with it. The administration of President Alfonso Portillo Cabrera, a member of the right-wing Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), showed little tolerance for criticism of any kind.
Several attacks set the tone for the year. On February 20, a group of protesters gathered in front of the offices of the Guatemala City daily elPeriódico and threatened the newspaper's staff. The protesters identified themselves as supporters of Luis Rabbé, then minister of communications, infrastructure, and housing. The threats apparently resulted from the newspaper's coverage of high-level government corruption, including elPeriódico's strong criticism of Rabbé's official conduct. Rabbé later resigned.
In late March, four elPeriódico journalists were threatened and attacked after they uncovered mismanagement at a state-controlled bank. In another controversial story known as "Guategate," Prensa Libre revealed in 2000 that more than 20 FRG legislators had conspired to reduce a new tax on alcoholic beverages. Former military dictator and current president of Congress Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt was implicated in the scandal and stripped of immunity from prosecution in March 2001. In April, Ríos Montt complained that media coverage of "Guategate" was part of an orchestrated campaign to damage his prestige and ensure his "political lynching." In October 2001, the investigation of Ríos Montt and the other legislators was shelved after a highly controversial court ruling.
Early in the year, media tycoon Angel González, a Mexican national and brother-in-law of former minister Rabbé, used his broadcasting empire to wage a campaign to discredit elPeriódico and Prensa Libre. Through front companies, González owns all four of Guatemala's private television stations, which violates constitutional prohibitions against both monopolies and foreign ownership of the media. He has canceled two independent news programs and wields enormous influence over Guatemalan politics.
González has been a leading financial contributor to President Portillo's political campaigns, and Rabbé is a former executive in González's media empire. González has also been linked to shady business deals in Perú, where he allegedly attempted to gain control of TV channel Canal 13 in collusion with disgraced Peruvian intelligence adviser Vladimiro Montesinos, according to Peruvian sources.
Though President Portillo says he is concerned about González's TV monopoly, he has done little to dismantle it. While the president has pledged to open the remaining two broadcast TV channels to competitive bidding—they are state-owned and currently don't broadcast any programming—no concrete action has been taken. More: http://www.cpj.org/attacks01/americas01/guatemala.html |
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