CONGRESS ELECTS NEW PRESIDENT, PREVIOUS ONE

C O N F I D E N T I A L GUATEMALA 001349 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/29/2018 TAGS: PGOV KCRM PINR GT SUBJECT: CONGRESS ELECTS NEW PRESIDENT, PREVIOUS ONE INDICTED REF: A. GUATEMALA 1281 ¶B. GUATEMALA 33 ¶C. GUATEMALA 1017 Classified By: Pol/Econ Counselor Drew Blakeney for reasons 1.4 (b&d). ¶1. (C) Summary: On October 22, the Guatemalan Congress elected Roberto Alejos of the governing UNE party as its new president. Alejos is known to be close to First Lady Sandra Torres de Colom. His election should help Torres to advance her ambitious social welfare agenda, and will further empower President Colom's kitchen cabinet. Also on October 22, the Supreme Court stripped former President Eduardo Meyer, who was also from UNE, of his congressional immunity so that he can face embezzlement and other charges stemming from the congressional finance scandal. End Summary. ¶2. (C) On October 22, with 117 votes in favor and 33 against, Roberto Alejos of the governing UNE party was elected to assume the Presidency of Congress in January 2009. In addition to the UNE party, GANA, FRG, Guatemala Bench, and the UCN -- all of which have been consistent supporters of the GOG's legislative agenda in recent months -- also voted for Alejos. At the same time, Congress also chose the other eight members of its Executive Board, all of whom are members of the UNE or the other parties that supported Alejos' candidacy. Current President of Congress Aristides Crespo, of the FRG, will return to the Executive Board as Second Vice President. President Alvaro Colom said in September that the UNE would wait until January 2009 to decide whether to present a candidate for President of Congress, but then reversed his decision (ref a). First Lady Sandra Torres de Colom had been pushing Alejos to run, and the President apparently bowed to pressure from her. ¶3. (C) Bio Note: Roberto Alejos is a lawyer from Jutiapa, and is a graduate of Walker College in Jasper, Alabama. He entered politics with the left-leaning Revolutionary Party, and is the son of a former President of Congress. Alejos was previously a Member of Congress from 1986-1991. He lost his 1991 re-election bid, and dropped out of politics. He spent many of the intervening years in the United States. Roberto's brother Gustavo Alejos is the Private Secretary to President Colom. Their cousin Luis Alejos currently serves as Minister of Communication (ref b). The Alejos brothers are minority owners of J.I. Cohen, a pharmaceuticals company that is the principal provider of medicine to the Guatemalan public health system. One press report indicated that Gustavo, Roberto, and Luis Alejos were the second, third, and fourth-largest contributors to Colom's presidential campaign. The Alejos brothers enjoy an especially close relationship with the Colom family, and President Colom is rarely seen without Gustavo Alejos by his side. ¶4. (U) Also on October 22, the Supreme Court stripped former President of Congress Eduardo Meyer, formerly of the UNE, of his congressional immunity so that he could be investigated for his role in a congressional investment scandal, in which some $11.2 million of public funds went missing (ref c). Meyer is now under house arrest, and faces charges of embezzlement, mismanagement of public funds, and fraud. (Only the first charge carries a possible prison sentence.) Meyer continues to maintain his innocence, but investigators believe that documents found at his home demonstrate that he personally benefited from the misuse of public funds. ¶5. (C) Comment: By his own account, Meyer was not particularly close to President Colom, and had an adversarial Qparticularly close to President Colom, and had an adversarial relationship with Sandra Torres de Colom. It therefore seems unlikely that judicial authorities handling his case will come under political pressure to be lenient. Nonetheless, it is very rare for someone of his stature to be imprisoned. ¶6. (C) Alejos' election is an importnt victory for the First Lady. President Colom ad wanted to postpone making a decision on whethr the UNE should now put forward another candidate for President of Congress. Following Meyer's disappointing performance, missteps by another UNE President of Congress could cast a pall over the party's name. However, it appears that Sandra Torres de Colom prevailed. Alejos is now well positioned to get Congress to pass legislation supporting the social welfare programs that Torres administers via her Social Cohesion Council. His election will also further empower President Colom's kitchen cabinet, at the center of which are the Alejos Family and the First Lady. ¶7. (C) The presence of a member of the President and First Lady's inner circle as President of Congress will provide the GOG with additional opportunities to drive the legislative agenda. The Embassy intends to raise early on, and regularly, USG views on legislative items, in particular those that would advance the Merida Initiative. McFarland