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CIAO DATE: 2/5/2007
Political Finance Regulation in Guatemala: A Comparative Survey
Kevin Casas-Zamora
January 2004
Abstract
As in most Latin American countries, the funding of political activities has only recently become a matter of serious concern in Guatemala. Long known for its chronic political instability, the country has limited experience in the observance of basic democratic practices such as regular and reasonably free and fair elections. Even today, the regulation of political finance remains under the shadow of other pressing and as yet unresolved political issues such as the extraordinary weakness of parties, the consistently high abstention rates and the practical disenfranchisement of the indigenous majority.
Notwithstanding this, in the past decade a number of political finance-related scandals have contributed to gradually place the topic on the political agenda. Although this increased interest is yet to materialise in an improved regulatory framework, it has at least evinced the ostensible limitations of the current regulation, counted amongst the most liberal in the region, and perhaps the world.
The following pages will summarily describe the current state of the Guatemalan political finance laws, their situation vis-à-vis the regulation of political finance in the rest of Central America and beyond, and some of the practical consequences derived from the existing framework. These consequences include, of course, the scandals that have contributed to attract attention to the topic.
