PARTIDO PATRIOTA'S PLAN OF GOVERNMENT AIMS TO RESTORE

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 001517 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KDEM KJUS PREL KCRM SOCI GT SUBJECT: PARTIDO PATRIOTA'S PLAN OF GOVERNMENT AIMS TO RESTORE SECURITY AND HOPE REF: GUATEMALA 1468 Sensitive but unclassified. Protect accordingly. ¶1. (U) Summary: Presidential candidate Otto Perez Molina of center-right Partido Patriota (PP) presented his plan of government July 26, focusing on five priority areas: democratic security and justice, economic development, rural development, health and food security, and education. He pledged to reallocate the national budget to ensure funding for these priorities, and described his hard-line ("mano dura") campaign slogan as symbolic of discipline and decisiveness. End summary. ¶2. (U) Presidential candidate Otto Perez Molina (PP),currently running second in the polls behind Alvaro Colom (UNE),introduced his four-year plan of government to a packed audience July 26. "Plan Guatemala Segura" was the culmination of collaboration with over 400 professionals, including international consultants, over a period of twenty months. Perez Molina, who noted lack of opportunity and lack of security as the primary causes of suffering in Guatemala, said that the plan represented his commitment to a better, more prosperous and secure Guatemala. ¶3. (U) A budget of Q40 billion (USD 5 billion) would be needed to implement the plan, which in the first year would focus on security, education, and health. Perez Molina would reallocate the national budget, providing additional funding to the Ministries of Government, Education, and Health. The Ministry of Health would receive Q300 million (approximately USD 39 million),specifically to strengthen the hospital system. He anticipated that Q1,300 million (USD 171 million) would be available upon implementation of austerity measures in the Executive, and that an additional Q400 million (USD 53 million) would be available if the Program of Urban and Rural Community Support was eliminated. ¶4. (U) Perez Molina characterized the plan as "a realistic, realizable plan, not an illusion" that would frustrate expectations. The plan is comprised of five core programmatic areas: democratic security and justice, economic development, rural development, health and food security, and education. ¶5. (U) In the area of democratic security and justice, Perez Molina would enforce the death penalty and launch an offensive to neutralize the proliferation of illegal armed groups and youth gangs. He would create a national system of security that would focus on citizen security, with particular attention to the five departments and two municipalities where 70 percent of crime currently occurs. A pilot plan to improve security would be launched in the high-crime municipalities of Guatemala City and Mixco. ¶6. (U) In the area of economic development, the focus would be on simplifying the process for establishing and registering new businesses, improving infrastructure, increasing foreign investment, and channeling remittances into productive projects. The aim would be to improve Guatemala's ranking for business climate and to increase the country's economic growth rate to 6 percent annually. ¶7. (U) Perez Molina estimated that 60 percent of the population lives in rural areas, of which 72 percent lives in poverty, including 31 percent in extreme poverty. He would focus on reducing poverty by combating inequality, providing greater access to micro-credit for small and medium-sized rural businesses, and developing a land management program. ¶8. (U) On education, Perez Molina pledged universal primary education and underscored the need for secondary education to create greater employment opportunities and a better standard of living. He noted that almost 80 percent of secondary school-aged children currently do not attend school and that on average Guatemalans between 25 and 65 years of age received only four years of formal education. He proposed regionalizing administration of the educational system and regularizing quality control and supervision in private educational institutions. ¶9. (U) The area of health would focus on greater access, especially by the neediest populations, to health care, and more equipment, personnel, and hospitals to attend to patients. On food security, the government would work with municipalities to improve nutrition and to develop community sanitary projects for sustainable access to potable water. ¶10. (U) In closing, Perez Molina emphasized that "mano dura" symbolized character, decisiveness, discipline, and strength, and shared his vision of Guatemala as a country free of corruption, impunity, insecurity, and inequality. He promised honest and reliable leadership, drawing an analogy of a captain of a ship, navigating a new and better course for the future of Guatemala. ¶11. (SBU) Comment: Perez Molina, like Alvaro Colom, did not expound on the proposed actions in his plan of government. However, this presentation, like other public foro, showcased Perez Molina's strength as a public speaker and the contrast in style between him and the more academic, reserved Colom.