Alfonso Portillo

Infobox President | name=Alfonso Portillo

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order=President of Guatemala
term_start=14 January 2000
term_end=14 January 2004
predecessor=Álvaro Arzú
successor=Óscar Berger
birth_date=Birth date and age|1951|10|24|df=yes
birth_place=Zacapa
spouse=
party=Guatemalan Republican Front

Alfonso Antonio Portillo Cabrera (born September 24, 1951 in Zacapa) is a Guatemalan politician. He served as the President of the Republic of Guatemala from 2000 to 2004.

He took office on January 14, 2000, representing the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG). The party is led by retired general and former military ruler Efraín Ríos Montt.

Early career

Portillo obtained his academic qualifications in Mexico. He received a degree in social sciences from the Autonomous University of Guerrero (UAG) in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, and his doctorate from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City. In the late 1970s he became involved with left-wing indigenous groups in Guerrero and with the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG). During the 1980s he lectured in political science at the university in Chilpancingo, Mexico. During that time, Portillo shot and killed two students. He later claimed that he had shot the students in self-defense. His political opponents, however, asserted that he had killed the two unarmed students in a "bar brawl." He was never charged for the shootings, and in 1995, a Mexican judge declared the case "inactive." [citeweb |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19991109/ai_n14273103 |title="Self-confessed killer leads poll in Guatemala" |publisher="The Independent (London)" |author=Jan Kirk |date=November 9, 1999 ] [citeweb |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-23958176.html |title="A Killer, and Perhaps a President; Candidate With Violent Past Leads in Polls for Today's Guatemalan Vote" |publisher="The Washington Post" |author=Serge F. Kovaleski |date=November 7, 1999 |quote=Not only has leading presidential candidate Alfonso Portillo admitted to fatally shooting two men--in what he says was self-defense--during a brawl in Mexico 17 years ago, but he has come close to boasting about it in TV campaign commercials. ]

In 1989 Portillo returned to Guatemala and joined the "Social Democratic Party" (PSD), which had replaced the "Authentic Revolutionary Party" the previous year. The little-known PSD was one of the very few leftist parties that survived the military repression that had characterized the 1970s and 1980s. He then moved to the "Guatemalan Christian Democrats" (DCG), a center-right formation which at the time was the governing party. In 1992 he was appointed Director of the Guatemalan Institute of Social and Political Sciences (IGESP), a role he held till 1994. He became the DCG's Secretary General in 1993 and was elected as one of their deputies in 1994, and became head of their group in Congress. During this time he also became an editorial adviser to "Siglo Veintiuno," one of the two largest-selling daily newspapers. Fact|date=June 2008

FRG

In April 1995 Portillo, along with another seven of the DCG's 13 deputies, left the party to become independents after the parliamentary group was accused of corruption. On 20 July 1995 he joined the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG). Its leader, Efraín Ríos Montt, was at the time leader of Congress. When Ríos Montt was constitutionally barred from running in the November 12 presidential election because he had previously taken power through a coup d'etat, the FRG chose Portillo as their candidate. After gaining 22% of the vote in the first round of voting, he lost to Álvaro Arzú in the second round on January 7, 1996. With both candidates promising to finalize the peace negotiations Portillo narrowly lost, garnering 48.7% of the vote. [citeweb |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E3DE1339F934A35752C0A960958260 |publisher="The New York Times" |date=January 7, 1997 |author=Larry Rohter |title="Guatemala Election Becomes Referendum on Former Dictator" ] Fact|date=June 2008

Presidential aspirations

In July 1998 the FRG voted for him to be their presidential candidate the following year, having decided not to nominate Ríos Montt. Portillo launched a campaign in favor of bringing morality into political life, to implacably fight corruption, to defend the indigenous population and the poor campesinos against the small, urban, white elite. He also promised security in the face of the growing problem with delinquency during Arzú's tenure in the office. In contrast to 1995, the issue of the homicides in Mexico were brought up, and became a central electoral issue. Portillo immediately admitted that he had shot the two students, but claimed it was an act of self defense. He said that he had fled from the Mexican authorities, rather than face trial, both because of his political affiliations, and because he was a foreigner in Mexico. These revelations enhanced Portillo's as a "tough, no-nonsense" politician. On 7 November he won the first round with 47.8% of the vote, and in the second round on December 26 he decisively beat Óscar Berger with 68.3% of the vote. Fact|date=June 2008

President

On the day of his investiture Portillo said that Guatemala was "on the edge of collapse", and promised a thorough government investigation into corruption. On 9 August 2000 he declared that the governments of the previous two decades had been involved in human rights abuses. While he showed determination to see through his regenerative and progressive programme, his government soon became overwhelmed by the reality of the political and mafia corruption in the country. During 2001 his government faced a continuous wave of protests that sapped the credibility of his government. The FRG were accused of bringing corruption on an unprecedented scale to the country. His government has been tainted by accusations of theft, money laundering, money transferring to the army, creation of bank accounts in Panama, Mexico, and the U.S. by many members of his staff, totalling more than USD $1 billion. Fact|date=June 2008 In the first round of the November 2003 elections (see: Guatemala election, 2003), he backed former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt to succeed him. However, the FRG lost to Óscar Berger's GANA party, who was sworn in to replace Portillo on January 14, 2004. Fact|date=June 2008

Recent events

When his political immunity was revoked on February 19, 2004 Portillo immediately fled to Mexico. On August 16, 2004, immigration authorities there granted him a year-long work visa. He lives in Mexico City in an apartment in one of the city's most exclusive neighbourhoods. Portillo has been accused of authorizing $15 million in transfers to the Guatemalan defense department, where authorities believe most of the money was stolen by his associates. After a long process, Mexico's foreign ministry approved the extradition to Guatemala on October 30th, 2006. [citeweb |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/31/AR2006103101447.html |publisher="The Washington Post" |date=October 31, 2006 |author=The Associated Press |quote=The Mexican government has authorized the extradition of ex-Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo to face embezzlement charges in his country, officials said Tuesday. Portillo's defense lawyer said he would immediately appeal. |title="Mexico Authorizes Portillo's Extradition" ] [citeweb |url=http://www.cronica.com.mx/nota.php?id_nota=110328 |title="Ex presidente Alfonso Portillo viajó a México tras perder inmunidad" |date=February 19, 2004 |publisher="La Cronica De Hoy" |author= ] His actual extradition did not occur until October 7, 2008. [citeweb |url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/07/news/LT-Guatemala-Portillo.php |title="Mexico extradites ex Guatemalan leader" |date=October 7, 2008 |publisher="International Herald Tribune" |author= ]

According to reports in May 2007, Portillo sued Guatemala in the Central American Court of Justice, in Nicaragua, to be reinstated as a member of the Central American Parliament (and thus regain his immunity from prosecution). [citeweb |url=http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2007/mayo/12/170519.html |title="Alfonso Portillo pretende inmunidad" |date=May 12, 2007 |publisher="PrensaLibre.com" |author=Olga Lopez ]

References

External links

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