Monday, November 05, 2007
Colom, Left Victory
Colom Starts Guatemala Change Today
Guatemala, Nov 5 (Prensa Latina) The change for which we have been waiting 50 years starts in Guatemala today, said President-Elect Alvaro Colom, from the National Unity of Hope, in his first speech.
The social democratic aspirant won the Sunday runoff with 52.78 percent of votes, while his rival retired general Otto Perez Molina got 47.22 percent.
In front of thousands of followers at the headquarters of his party, Colom said that Guatemala deserves a different fate and needs to transform structures to achieve equality, equity and social justice.
"Monsignor Gerardi used to say: sow truth and justice and achieve conciliation," recalled the president-elect when referring to the friar murdered in 1998 after the publication of a report on violations of human rights committed during the war.
Colom promised to start working immediately to achieve those changes the country needs and to do that he has proposed a program based on four points: governability, solidarity, regionalization and productivity.
Among his aims are a 100 day plan to respond the people's most urgent needs, and boosting some laws in the Republic's Congress in economy, security, health, environment and rural development.
Also on the list is to recover the so-called "red zones" of violence, purge corrupt police and beginning actions to eliminate drug and weapon shipments and people trade.
As for his foreign policy, Colom told Prensa Latina that he will expand relations with all blocs, mainly with Central America, Mexico and Panama , his closest markets.
