4 years in the past, when Alejandro Giammattei was elected president of Guatemala, immigrants residing in the USA had been capable of vote for the primary time. In that experimental election, 734 votes had been counted among the many 4 polling stations that had been put in in Los Angeles, Houston, New York Metropolis and Silver Spring, Md. — a tiny fraction of the greater than 5 million votes solid.
However on this yr’s presidential contest, scheduled for June 25, there will probably be voting facilities once more in Los Angeles and Houston — the 2 U.S. cities with the biggest variety of Guatemalan immigrants — in addition to in 13 different areas together with Miami, Atlanta, Raleigh, N.C., and Chicago. Guatemalans residing in the USA have till March 25 to register to vote.
Each in Guatemala, a rustic wracked with violence, corruption and financial inequalities, in addition to in expatriate communities within the U.S., the upcoming elections are stirring a number of anxieties. For Alicia Ivonne Estrada, a Guatemala native and professor of Chicano Research at Cal State Northridge, they provide rise to worry and distrust deriving from her expertise in 2019, when she went to the native consulate to vote however wasn’t allowed to solid a poll.
“There was an countless quantity of paperwork that was invented” on the final minute, “and they didn’t permit the inhabitants that needed to vote from overseas to take action,” mentioned Estrada, a specialist in her nation’s diaspora.
In coming days, delegations from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, or TSE, of Guatemala will maintain registration occasions on U.S. soil with the purpose of increasing the electoral rolls and selling participation among the many migrant inhabitants.
“The significance of the vote lies within the energy of the individuals to hunt the modifications they need,” mentioned Ingrid Soto, head of the TSE’s overseas vote.
Soto mentioned that Guatemalans residing in the USA who nonetheless are registered as voters in Guatemala might want to replace their addresses, a course of that may be completed in individual in the course of the registration or by way of the TSE’s internet portal. To replace an handle or register for the primary time, voters might want to produce a private identification doc, which will be processed at any of the 23 Guatemalan consulates in the USA.
In accordance with the Pew Analysis Heart, based mostly on information from the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2017 there have been 1.4 million individuals of Guatemalan descent residing in the USA. However within the 2019 Guatemalan presidential elections, solely 63,043 of these had been registered to vote.
As of March 6, the TSE web site reported 86,703 registered voters, a determine that displays each a seamless lack of engagement in addition to the restricted data that has been launched concerning the election.
“I didn’t know the reality,” mentioned Gloria Méndez, a Los Angeles resident who 25 years in the past emigrated from Villa Nueva, a couple of miles south of the capital, Guatemala Metropolis. “The people who find themselves right here, if we don’t know something, we are able to’t vote.”
Like many Guatemalans, Méndez takes a skeptical, even cynical, view of politics basically.
“All governments promise, they by no means ship,” she mentioned. “Whether or not I vote or not doesn’t matter anyway.”
Regardless of the apathy amongst lots of her compatriots, Elizabeth Urrutia registered in January. The younger mom, who got here to California three years in the past, mentioned that earlier than leaving Guatemala she studied authorized sciences. Later, after establishing her personal enterprise, she turned a sufferer of one of many extortion rackets that plague the Central American nation, forcing her to to migrate.
“I used to be simply asking my nation for an opportunity, however there wasn’t one,” she lamented.
When she fled Guatemala together with her first youngster, Urrutia was pregnant. With elections approaching, she has been pondering of the family members she left behind. She believes that the continued issues that may confront the brand new authorities — job shortage, the rising value of primary foodstuffs, the insecurity pushed by drug cartels — make it essential for Guatemalans to register.
“All of us have the correct to decide on and solid our vote,” she mentioned.
In Los Angeles, 29 registration tables will probably be distributed throughout 4 voting facilities. Guatemalans in San Francisco, San Diego, New York Metropolis, Atlanta and Houston additionally will be capable to vote at polling facilities near their houses.
“We nonetheless should see the final rely of the registration,” mentioned Hugo Mérida, who has been lining up voting facilities and recruiting volunteer staffers. “For each 600 individuals there have to be an extra desk. In Los Angeles we wish to arrange 29 tables as a result of there are round 50,000 individuals on the registry.”
Mérida mentioned that since Feb. 13, when he took workplace, he has been working double time to arrange and employees the facilities, which will probably be supervised by regional election boards. The organizers of the electoral occasion say they’ll want about 900 volunteers.
“Our mission is to carry the polling stations as shut as attainable,” mentioned Mérida.
After voting ends June 25, every vote will probably be counted by the election boards underneath TSE personnel supervision. That data then will probably be despatched by pc personnel to the TSE headquarters in Guatemala Metropolis.
Estrada, of Cal State Northridge, emphasised that the TSE and the administration of the elections are underneath the management of a corrupt system, and that Guatemala’s elections traditionally haven’t been clear. Whether or not that ever modifications could hinge partially on this yr’s end result.
“In these elections, it’s at stake to return to the Nineteen Eighties, the place massacres, disappearances and army repression had been seen,” Estrada mentioned.
“Voting is essential, however we now have to maintain organizing and preventing for justice in Guatemala,” she added.
