The Institutional Republican Party (Spanish: Partido Republicano Institucional, PRI), until 2013 known as the Guatemalan Republican Front (Frente Republicano Guatemalteco, FRG), was a right-wing[4] to far-right[5]political party in Guatemala.
Logo of the Frente Republicano Guatemalteco (FRG, "Guatemalan Republican Front") founded by General Ríos Montt in 1989 and officially registered in 1990. The logo is based on an image used by the military government in 1982–83 and tied to the motto No robo, no miento, no abuso ("I don't steal, I don't lie, I don't abuse"). Here the motto has been changed to Seguridad, bienestar, justicia ("Security, welfare, justice").
It was created in 1989 by former president and dictatorEfraín Ríos Montt, and formally registered in 1990. It chose Ríos Montt as its candidate, but he was not allowed to stand because of a constitutional ban on former coup leaders such as himself from seeking the presidency. By the time the decision was made to ban him, it was too late for the FRG to choose another candidate. They did win 10 seats in the National Congress in those concurrent elections. It was the main component of the "No Sell-Out Platform," an alliance of right-wing parties.
In early elections only to the Congress in 1994 the FRG gained 32 seats and became the largest single party in the legislature. In the 1995 presidential election, FRG candidate Alfonso Portillo narrowly lost in the second round, which is a run-off between the two highest placed candidates from the first round ballot. It gained a reduced 21 seats in Congress.
In 1999 Alfonso Portillo won the presidential election, while the FRG, with 63 seats, had a majority in Congress. Ríos Montt became the President of Congress (speaker). Paradoxically they gained their strongest support from the same rural communities that had most suffered under the former rule of Ríos Montt between 1982 and 1983.
For the 2003 presidential elections, the FRG again put forward Ríos Montt as its presidential candidate. Contradictory judicial rulings on whether he would be able to stand motivated a march on Guatemala City by FRG supporters bussed in from all over the country on 24 July, resulting in a chaotic situation known as Jueves Negro ("Black Thursday"). Days later the ban on Ríos Montt's candidacy was lifted by the Constitutional Court. Opponents claimed that the FRG obtained that ruling by previously appointing its own loyalists to the high court. Meanwhile, Ríos Montt claimed that previous judicial rulings preventing him from running for president were the work of his political opponents.
Despite a vigorously run campaign, the violence of Jueves Negro, as well as the numerous corruption scandals of the incumbent Portillo administrations, adversely impacted Ríos Montt's popularity and credibility. He was third in first round of voting, with 19.3% of the ballots. In the congressional elections held the same day, 9 November 2003, the FRG won 19.7% of the popular vote and 43 out of 158 seats, dropping to second in the chamber.
Ríos Montt's daughter, Zury Ríos, was the party's floor leader.
For the 2007 elections, the party chose Luis Rabbe as its presidential candidate. With the large number of right-wing parties running in the election, the FRG was badly defeated in these elections. Rabbe came in fifth place with 7.3% of the vote, and the party received 9% of the vote and 15 seats in the congressional elections.
In January 2013, the FRG was renamed to Institutional Republican Party (PRI). Zury Ríos left the party to become Vision with Values (ViVa)'s presidential candidate in 2015. Instead, PRI nominated the manager and Congressman Luis Fernando Pérez as its candidate.
In the legislativeelections held on September 6, 2015, the PRI secured 57,948 votes (1.25% of the total) in the race for national-list deputies and, save for defections, will have no representation in the 2016-2020 Congress. In the presidential election held on the same day, its candidate Luis Fernando Pérez received 41,969 votes (0.86%).
Having failed to secure the minimum of 5% of the popular vote or one seat in Congress, the PRI forfeited its official registration as a party. The party was dissolved soon afterwards.
Related Research Articles
Politics of Guatemala takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, where by the President of Guatemala is both head of state, head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Congress of the Republic. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Guatemala is a Constitutional Republic.
José Efraín Ríos Montt was a Guatemalan military officer, politician, and dictator who served as de facto President of Guatemala from 1982 to 1983. His brief tenure as chief executive was one of the bloodiest periods in the long-running Guatemalan Civil War. Ríos Montt's counter-insurgency strategies significantly weakened the Marxist guerrillas organized under the umbrella of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), while also leading to accusations of war crimes and genocide perpetrated by the Guatemalan Army under his leadership.
Ramiro de León Carpio was a Guatemalan politician who served as the president of Guatemala from June 1993 until January 1996.
Óscar José Rafael Berger Perdomo is a Guatemalan businessman and politician who served as the President of Guatemala from 2004 to 2008.
General elections were held in Guatemala on 9 November 2003, with a second round of the presidential election held on 28 December. Óscar Berger won the presidential election, representing the Grand National Alliance, a coalition of alliance of the Patriotic Party, the Reform Movement and the National Solidarity Party. The Alliance were also victorious in the Congressional elections, winning 47 of the 158 seats. Voter turnout was 57.9% in the Congressional elections, 58.9% in the first round of the presidential elections and 46.8% in the second.
Alfonso Antonio Portillo Cabrera is a Guatemalan politician who served as President of Guatemala from 2000 to 2004.
Gerald Cameron Weller is an American politician who was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Illinois's 11th congressional district. As of 2015, Weller is the managing principal of New World Group Public Affairs, a lobbying group with offices in Washington, DC, Florida and Guatemala. He was also a Global Development Officer for an IPTV company called VIPTV.
Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo is a Guatemalan politician and the current Secretary General of the Central American Integration System (SICA). He served as President of Guatemala from 14 January 1986 to 14 January 1991.
Zury Mayté Ríos Sosa is a Guatemalan politician. She is the daughter of the late general, and President of Guatemala Efraín Ríos Montt.
Guatemalan Christian Democracy was a political party in Guatemala. A moderate, reformist and anti-Communist party, it was a member of Christian Democrat International.
Jueves negro was a violent series of political demonstrations that created havoc in Guatemala City on 24 and 25 July 2003.
General elections were held in Guatemala on 9 September to elect a new President and Vice President of the Republic, 158 congressional deputies, and 332 mayors. As no presidential candidate received a majority of the vote, a second round was held on 4 November.
The Conservative Party of Chile was one of the principal Chilean political parties since its foundation in 1836 until 1948, when it broke apart. In 1953 it reformed as the United Conservative Party and in 1966 joined with the Liberal Party to form the National Party. The Conservative Party was a right-wing party, originally created to be the clericalist, pro-Catholic Church group.
Harris Whitbeck Pinol was an upper-class Guatemalan businessman. Whitbeck was a presidential candidate for Guatemala's Partido Patriota or Patriotic Party (PP) during national elections held in 2003. Whitbeck had previously been in the Frente Republicano Guatemalteco or Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), the political party founded in 1989 by the former Guatemalan strongman and president, former Brigadier General Efraín Ríos Montt, a Christian evangelist who seized power in a coup toppling then dictator General Romeo Lucas García in 1982. Montt's regime was favored by Ronald Reagan's administration as a staunch U.S. ally and anti-communist bulwark during the turbulent 1980's when civil wars plagued Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Prior to breaking away from the FRG, Harris Whitbeck had been one of Rios Montt's closest advisers.
The Institutional Democratic Party was a Guatemalan pro-government political party active during the 1970s.
General elections were held in Guatemala on 6 September 2015 to elect the President and Vice President, all 158 Congress deputies, all 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament, and mayors and councils for all 338 municipalities in the country.
Vision with Values is a political party in Guatemala.
Luis Armando Rabbé Tejada is a Guatemalan politician and media entrepreneur. He was President of the Congress of Guatemala between 14 January 2015 and 14 January 2016. Rabbé was elected to the Congress of Guatemala in the 2011 elections for the National List under the banner of National Change Union. Three months after being installed he became an independent member. In the 2015 general election Rabbé ran once more for the National List, this time as the number two of the Renewed Democratic Liberty (LIDER).
María Teresa Sosa Ávila was a Guatemalan politician. She was the widow of President of Guatemala Efraín Ríos Montt and mother of Zury Ríos. She was a candidate for the Presidency for the Guatemalan Republican Front in the elections of 1995. Her candidacy was annulled by the Citizen Registry, because she could not be elected to the position under the express prohibition contained in article 186, subsection c) of the Constitution of Guatemala. She was succeeded as her party's candidate by Alfonso Portillo, who subsequently won the 1999 elections.
Valor is a conservative and right-wing populist political party in Guatemala.
References
↑ Carmack, Robert M. (2008), "Perspectives on the Politics of Human Rights in Guatemala", Human Rights in the Maya Region: Global Politics, Cultural Contentions, and Moral Engagements, Duke University Press, p.61
↑ Isaacs, Anita (2006), "Guatemala", Countries at the Crossroads: A Survey of Democratic Governance 2006, Rowman & Littlefields, p.147
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
