The dubious efforts of the UNE Government.

It was more than a year and a half ago, between august and september 2007, that I wrote an article about the Plan for Hope. The plan was the promise that took Ing. Álvaro Colom, to the presidency in January 14th, 2008. The article was published in the "Siglo XXI" Newspaper, and is proof of both the acuracy of my predictions in the last few months and a warning for the next few. This is part of what I wrote:


"... The plan (The document) is 274 pages long, and seems to be structured and supported in the ´Social Democratic´ Theory. The strategic programs that are proposed are:

• Solidarity
• Governability
• Productivity
• Regionalization.

(...) The enphasis made on decentralization through the empowerment of municpalities, being a key policy for the country´s sustainable development, is very positive. (...)

(...) I was not confortable reading the governments stand point on free market, specially when it states the following: "Markets when posible and state when necessary". Because this statement empowers the government to ultematly decide just what is "Nessesary" and even worse, to determain where markets are "possible".(...)

(...) Another forseeable flaw in the plan was limiting the creation of new market relations only to other developing nations, this is not really very smart, commerce compatibility is not defined by a nations economical similarity, but insted, a nations hability to satisfy another nations needs.
Regardless of their development stages. In a globlazed reality, markets are not even defined by national geography, more by individual consumers! ..."

A year and a half later, the results are even worse than I forsaw. There has been no decentraliztaion, instead, a very evident effort towards incremeting executive power, following steps that veer far of the "Social Democrat" theory, and are adapting to a more populist, neo-socialist approch. Something that the Guatemalan people did not vote for and do not need.

The government´s effort to create and reínforce international commerce has been mediocre at best, having managed to establish a positive "Unilateral" bond with Cuba. This relationship is not helping small and medium sized businesses, since transactions with cuba often involve Guatemalan companies to agree to give credit periods of 5 to 7 months. This kind of comercial relationship only benefits large companies.

We understand that global economy is going down hill, and has been for the past 2 years. Other areas, like health, security, justice, are also going down hill. This can be appreciated in the record braking crime rates announce by the end of 2008.

Where is Guatemala heading when governed by a group of people who cant come to simple agreemnts amongst themselvs, dubious leaders tripping over each other, ruining even their own personal intents of economic development?