The political framework of Guatemala

Political Outline

Current Political Leaders: President: Bernardo ARÉVALO de León (since 15 January 2024)
Vice President: Karin HERRERA (since 15 January 2024)
Next Election Dates: Presidential and parliamentary: June 2027
Main Political Parties: Guatemala has a multi-party system, though several larger parties typically dominate politics. The main political parties include:
- Movimento Semilla: centre-left, progressivist, social-democratic
- Vamos: right-wing, conservative, liberal
- National Unity of Hope Party (UNE): centre-left, Christian, nationalist
- Valor: right-wing, conservative, populist
- Cabal: liberal, centre
- Vision With Values (ViVa): right-wing, Christian
- Todos: centre-right
Other parties include:

- Partido Patriota Nacional (PPN)
- Visión con Valores (VOS)
- Bienestar Nacional (BIEN)
- Compromiso, Renovación y Orden (CREO)
- Victoria (VICTORIA)
- Partido Unionista (UNIONISTA)
- Partido Convergencia (ELEFANTE)
- - Movimiento Cambio (Cambio)
Gran Alianza Nacional (AZUL)
- WINAQ-Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (WINAQ-URNG).
Executive Power: The President is both the Chief of State and Head of Government. He/she is elected by popular vote for a single term of four years. He/she holds the executive powers, which include implementing the law and running the day-to-day affairs. The Council of Ministers is appointed by the President.
Legislative Power: The Guatemalan legislative power is unicameral. Parliament, known as the Congress of the Republic, has 160 members who are elected by popular vote for a term of four years (128 members directly elected in multi-seat constituencies in the country's 22 departments and 32 directly elected in a single nationwide constituency by closed party-list proportional representation vote). The country's constitution provides for the separation of executive, legislative, and judiciary powers. Even though the president cannot dissolve parliament, he/she has the power to veto acts of parliament which, in turn, can be overridden by a legislative supermajority.

Indicator of Freedom of the Press

The world rankings, published annually, measures violations of press freedom worldwide. It reflects the degree of freedom enjoyed by journalists, the media and digital citizens of each country and the means used by states to respect and uphold this freedom. Finally, a note and a position are assigned to each country. To compile this index, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) prepared a questionnaire incorporating the main criteria (44 in total) to assess the situation of press freedom in a given country. This questionnaire was sent to partner organisations,150 RWB correspondents, journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists. It includes every kind of direct attacks against journalists and digital citizens (murders, imprisonment, assault, threats, etc.) or against the media (censorship, confiscation, searches and harassment etc.).

World Rank:: 116/180

Indicator of Political Freedom

Definition

Definition:

The Indicator of Political Freedom provides an annual evaluation of the state of freedom in a country as experienced by individuals. The survey measures freedom according to two broad categories: political rights and civil liberties. The ratings process is based on a checklist of 10 political rights questions (on Electoral Process, Political Pluralism and Participation, Functioning of Government) and 15 civil liberties questions (on Freedom of Expression, Belief, Associational and Organizational Rights, Rule of Law, Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights). Scores are awarded to each of these questions on a scale of 0 to 4, where a score of 0 represents the smallest degree and 4 the greatest degree of rights or liberties present. The total score awarded to the political rights and civil liberties checklist determines the political rights and civil liberties rating. Each rating of 1 through 7, with 1 representing the highest and 7 the lowest level of freedom, corresponds to a range of total scores.

Ranking:: Partly Free
Political Freedom:: 4/7

Political freedom in the world (interactive map)
Source: Freedom in the World Report, Freedom House

Any Comment About This Content? Report It to Us.

Trade FiguresPrevious

NextCovid-19