| Álvaro Colom | |
|---|---|
| President of Guatemala | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 14 January 2008 |
|
| Vice President | Rafael Espada |
| Preceded by | Óscar Berger |
| Succeeded by | Otto Pérez Molina (Elect) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 15 June 1951 Guatemala City, Guatemala |
| Political party | National Unity of Hope |
| Spouse(s) | Sandra Torres (2003–2011) |
| Alma mater | University of San Carlos of Guatemala |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Álvaro Colom Caballeros (born 15 June 1951) is the President of Guatemala for the 2008–2012 term and leader of the social-democratic National Unity of Hope (UNE).
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Colom was born in Guatemala City, the son of Antonio Colom Argueta and Yolanda Caballeros Ferraté, being the fourth of five siblings. His uncle, Manuel Colom, was a mayor of Guatemala City who was killed by the military in 1979 just after the creation of his political party was approved.[1] He is also the father of Antonio Colom Szarata, the bass player of a Guatemalan pop rock band, Viento en Contra.[2] He and his third wife, Sandra Torres, divorced in 2011. After gaining a degree as an industrial engineer at the University of San Carlos (USAC) he became a businessman involved in a variety of businesses, and a government civil servant, including being the founding General Director of the Fondo Nacional para la Paz and Vice Minister of the Economy before turning to politics. Representing the UNE (Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza) in the 2003 presidential elections, he lost to Óscar Berger on December 28, 2003--the closest a left-leaning candidate had come to winning the presidency since democracy was restored in 1985.
He was one of the two candidates to reach the second stage of the 2007 presidential election on September 9, 2007 along with Partido Patriota candidate Otto Pérez Molina. At 10:00 p.m. local time on election night, Colom was declared the newly elected president by over five percentage points, 52.7% to 47.3%, with over 96% of polling places counted, [3] becoming Guatemala's first left-leaning president in 53 years.
During the presidential campaign, Colom said that he wished to reduce crime by tackling poverty[4] in Guatemala. Since his election, Colom has made various attempts to put this rhetoric into reality, expanding social programs and access to health, education, and social security, all of which have contributed to a rise in the living standards of the Guatemalan poor.[5][6]
On May 10, 2009, Rodrigo Rosenberg, a Guatemalan lawyer and father of four, was shot to death. A videotaped message recorded by Rosenberg days before his death claimed that Colom and other high officials were directly responsible for his murder.[7] In an interview with CNN en Español, Colom stated that the accusations made in the video were false.[8] The Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre wrote that the videotape "has created the greatest political crisis for this democracy, because never before has a democratically elected president been accused of murder."[9] On 12 May 2009, thousands of people protested and demanded justice outside the Presidential House.[10] On 13 May 2009, protesters submitted a petition with 35,000 signatures to the Guatemalan congress with the goal of removing Colom's immunity from prosecution.[11]
On January 12, 2010, Carlos Castresana, Director of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (the international body in charge of the investigation of the Rosenberg murder), stated the Rosenberg murder was in fact a suicide and that Rosenberg had hired hit men to kill himself. Rosenberg was apparently motivated by his belief that the Colom government was responsible for the earlier murders of his clients, Khalil and Marjory Musa, with whom he also had a personal relationship, and his inability to definitively prove that Colom was behind their murders.[12]
On January 13, 2010, Castresana stated that Rosenberg planned his murder in 20 days, when he decided that there was impunity in Guatemala (referring to the case of Khalil and Marjory Musá) and became depressed over bad administration of his law firm (which later avoided bankruptcy by changing name and administration). Carlos Castresana said that President Colom, the First Lady Sandra Torres and the Private Secretary to the President Gustavo Alejos were cleared of charges, and the link that bonded them to the case was finally broken.[13]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Óscar Berger |
President of Guatemala 2008–2012 |
Succeeded by Otto Pérez Molina Elect |
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