Seoul Gazette - Bernardo Arevalo: from obscurity to nightmare for Guatemala's corrupt elite

The bespectacled 65-year-old sociologist may be the son of an ex-president, but his father served eight decades ago and he was largely unknown when the country's election process started in June.

However, he pulled off a massive upset by surging to the front of the race and winning in August with 59 percent of the vote, despite concerted efforts to have him disqualified.

He has spent much of the five-month period before his inauguration fighting off a judicial offensive from prosecutors aligned with Guatemala's ruling class and accused of corruption.

"The slow-motion coup d'etat that had been taking place has been blocked," Arevalo told AFP in an interview in December, vowing to rule "without fear."

Once he takes office, Arevalo will be Guatemala's first leftist president in 12 years.

His campaign especially inspired the youth, who dubbed him "Uncle Bernie" and spread his messages and press conferences on TikTok.

- 'Prey' of the corrupt -

Arevalo's anti-graft message struck a chord in a nation where grinding poverty, violence and graft send thousands abroad every year in search of a better life, many to the United States.

"We have been the victims, the prey, of corrupt politicians for years," Arevalo said on the campaign trail.

During the election he faced efforts to have his Semilla political party suspended, prompting protests domestically and rebukes internationally over alleged election meddling.

Since he was declared president-elect, he has faced attempts by the prosecutor's office to have the election results overturned.

Attorney General Consuelo Porras, senior prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche and Judge Fredy Orellana have been at the forefront of efforts to stop Arevalo taking over from outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei.

All three officials have been placed on a US list of officials considered corrupt and undemocratic.

- 'I am not my father' -

Arevalo is the son of reformist president Juan Jose Arevalo (1945-1951), who is fondly remembered as the first democratically elected leader of the country after the dictatorship of Jorge Ubico, an admirer of Adolf Hitler who imposed forced labor on the indigenous Mayan population.

"I am not my father, but I am walking the same path he forged and we will do it together," he told his final election rally.

Arevalo was born in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, where his father was exiled after a coup ousted his successor.

His family later moved to Venezuela, Mexico and Chile before he returned to Guatemala aged 15. He studied sociology in Israel.

Arevalo served as deputy foreign minister and then ambassador to Spain in the mid-1990s under late-president Ramiro de Leon Carpio.

He is a chess-playing, jazz-loving polyglot who speaks English, French, Hebrew and Portuguese on top of his native Spanish.

Arevalo is married to a doctor, Lucrecia Peinado. They each have three children from previous relationships.

"He likes cooking for his family, especially for his children and five grandchildren, movies and good Netflix series," a source close to him told AFP.

"He will not be a Superman... but he is definitely an honest man, with principles, values, respectful of his heritage and extremely committed to the country," his wife Peinado told the Prensa Libre newspaper.

F.Kang--SG