Karin Herrera, Elected Vice President of Guatemala: “May my Participation Motivate Other Women”

The elected vice president of Guatemala, Karin Herrera Aguilar, offers a frontal attack against state corruption from the inauguration of the new Government of the Central American country in 2024 and hopes that her performance will motivate other women to participate in local politics.

Herrera Aguilar explained to EFE in an interview that the Government of the Movimiento Semilla party, which will be chaired by Bernardo Arévalo de León as of next January 14, will vigorously combat corruption, enabling access to free information and signing a code of ethics for responsibility for each officer.

"Corruption has us in pieces, because (corrupt officials) have used the institutions to reinforce their interests without any consideration," said the 55-year-old chemist-biologist.

The vice president-elect is clear that the old corrupt practices "cannot be erased with a magic wand" and that they will find "resistance from actors who have put obstacles to the country's progress."

Herrera, however, was optimistic and assured that "dialogue" can "sensitize officials who have been coerced by corrupt actors to jump off those boats and work together for the country."

According to the former candidate, the Government of the Seed Movement plans to improve free access to public information, a code of ethics "that contracted officials will have to sign" and two special commissions as means of combating corruption.

Other priorities in sight

Although the priority of the Government of Arévalo de León and Herrera Aguilar will be focused on the fight against corruption, the new vice president stressed that in the first 100 days of her administration she will seek to advance "a security plan for women with the Secretariat against Violence Sexual and Human Trafficking, as well as generating plans for the care of migrants who are deported from the United States."

Herrera Aguilar will be the second vice president in the history of Guatemala, after Roxana Baldetti (2012-2015), in prison since 2015 for several million-dollar corruption cases.

"I hope that my participation motivates other women and that they see in me that you don't need to have certain stereotypes when you have a genuine intention to help others," she stressed.

The vice president-elect, who has been linked to university teaching and science for three decades at the University of San Carlos, the only state university in the country, says that her goal is "to be a vice president who feels through service and is open to dialogue".

Waiting to take possession

The judicial attack that the electoral process in Guatemala is undergoing "does not have any legal logic," explained the deputy president during the interview.

Herrera triumphed in the second electoral round on August 20 together with Arévalo de León, amid attempts by the Public Ministry (Prosecutor's Office) to cancel his party and prevent his participation in the ballot due to an alleged case of false signatures in 2018 .

Also read: Elections in Guatemala: Who is Bernardo Arévalo, New President?

The vice president stressed that the coming to power of the Seed Movement "is about the will of the population" and "transcends a party."

The transition process between Arévalo de León and the current president, Alejandro Giammattei, began this Monday under the magnifying glass of the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, who was present in the Guatemalan capital due to the uncertainty that revolves around this process due to the attempts of the Prosecutor's Office to suspend the Seed Movement.