VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHGT #1517/01 2112306
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 302306Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3423
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 4430

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 001517 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM KJUS PREL KCRM SOCI GT
SUBJECT: PARTIDO PATRIOTA'S PLAN OF GOVERNMENT AIMS TO RESTORE 
SECURITY AND HOPE 
 
REF:  GUATEMALA 1468 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Protect accordingly. 
 
¶1. (U) Summary:  Presidential candidate Otto Perez Molina of 
center-right Partido Patriota (PP) presented his plan of government 
July 26, focusing on five priority areas:  democratic security and 
justice, economic development, rural development, health and food 
security, and education.  He pledged to reallocate the national 
budget to ensure funding for these priorities, and described his 
hard-line ("mano dura") campaign slogan as symbolic of discipline 
and decisiveness.  End summary. 
 
¶2. (U) Presidential candidate Otto Perez Molina (PP), currently 
running second in the polls behind Alvaro Colom (UNE), introduced 
his four-year plan of government to a packed audience July 26. 
"Plan Guatemala Segura" was the culmination of collaboration with 
over 400 professionals, including international consultants, over a 
period of twenty months.  Perez Molina, who noted lack of 
opportunity and lack of security as the primary causes of suffering 
in Guatemala, said that the plan represented his commitment to a 
better, more prosperous and secure Guatemala. 
 
¶3. (U) A budget of Q40 billion (USD 5 billion) would be needed to 
implement the plan, which in the first year would focus on security, 
education, and health.  Perez Molina would reallocate the national 
budget, providing additional funding to the Ministries of 
Government, Education, and Health.  The Ministry of Health would 
receive Q300 million (approximately USD 39 million), specifically to 
strengthen the hospital system.  He anticipated that Q1,300 million 
(USD 171 million) would be available upon implementation of 
austerity measures in the Executive, and that an additional Q400 
million (USD 53 million) would be available if the Program of Urban 
and Rural Community Support was eliminated. 
 
¶4. (U) Perez Molina characterized the plan as "a realistic, 
realizable plan, not an illusion" that would frustrate expectations. 
 The plan is comprised of five core programmatic areas:  democratic 
security and justice, economic development, rural development, 
health and food security, and education. 
 
¶5. (U) In the area of democratic security and justice, Perez Molina 
would enforce the death penalty and launch an offensive to 
neutralize the proliferation of illegal armed groups and youth 
gangs.  He would create a national system of security that would 
focus on citizen security, with particular attention to the five 
departments and two municipalities where 70 percent of crime 
currently occurs.  A pilot plan to improve security would be 
launched in the high-crime municipalities of Guatemala City and 
Mixco. 
 
¶6. (U) In the area of economic development, the focus would be on 
simplifying the process for establishing and registering new 
businesses, improving infrastructure, increasing foreign investment, 
and channeling remittances into productive projects.  The aim would 
be to improve Guatemala's ranking for business climate and to 
increase the country's economic growth rate to 6 percent annually. 
 
 
¶7. (U) Perez Molina estimated that 60 percent of the population 
lives in rural areas, of which 72 percent lives in poverty, 
including 31 percent in extreme poverty.  He would focus on reducing 
poverty by combating inequality, providing greater access to 
micro-credit for small and medium-sized rural businesses, and 
developing a land management program. 
 
¶8. (U) On education, Perez Molina pledged universal primary 
education and underscored the need for secondary education to create 
greater employment opportunities and a better standard of living. 
He noted that almost 80 percent of secondary school-aged children 
currently do not attend school and that on average Guatemalans 
between 25 and 65 years of age received only four years of formal 
education.  He proposed regionalizing administration of the 
educational system and regularizing quality control and supervision 
in private educational institutions. 
 
¶9. (U) The area of health would focus on greater access, especially 
by the neediest populations, to health care, and more equipment, 
personnel, and hospitals to attend to patients.  On food security, 
the government would work with municipalities to improve nutrition 
and to develop community sanitary projects for sustainable access to 
potable water. 
 
¶10. (U) In closing, Perez Molina emphasized that "mano dura" 
symbolized character, decisiveness, discipline, and strength, and 
shared his vision of Guatemala as a country free of corruption, 
impunity, insecurity, and inequality.  He promised honest and 
reliable leadership, drawing an analogy of a captain of a ship, 
navigating a new and better course for the future of Guatemala. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Comment:  Perez Molina, like Alvaro Colom, did not expound 
on the proposed actions in his plan of government.  However, this 
presentation, like other public foro, showcased Perez Molina's 
strength as a public speaker and the contrast in style between him 
and the more academic, reserved Colom.