Retired General & Former Intelligence Director Perez Molina won Guatemala Presidential Election

Retired general and former intelligence director Otto Perez Molina of the Conservative Patriotic Party of Guatemala won the presidential election on 6 November 2011 by defeating tycoon-turned-political populist Manuel Baldizon of the Democratic Freedom Revival party. Pérez Molina, is the first former military leader elected president in Guatemala in the 25 years after the end of brutal military rule. Otto Perez Molina  succeded Álvaro Colom as Guatemala’s President.

Perez's iron-fist approach to rampant crime in a country overrun by gangs and Mexican drug cartels attracted the electorates. Perez declared that his priority would be to lower the levels of violence and insecurity and work with congress to improve the federal budget.

Guatemalans, like before once again elected the presidential candidate who lost the previous election, something they have done since democracy returned to the Central American country in 1986.

Elections were held on 11 September, 2011 in Guatemala for the offices of President and Vice President. Roxana Baldetti was elected the vice-president.

About Otto Perez Molina

During his time in the army he served as director of military intelligence and inspector-general of the army. In 1983 he was a member of the group of army officers who backed Defence Minister Óscar Mejía's coup d'état against de facto president Efraín Ríos Montt. While serving as chief of military intelligence in 1993, he was instrumental in forcing the departure of President Jorge Serrano. Serrano had attempted a self-coup by dissolving Congress and appointing new members to the Guatemalan Supreme Court.

Following this incident, Guatemala's human rights ombudsman, Ramiro de León, became president and appointed Pérez as his presidential chief of staff, a position he held until 1995. Pérez also represented the military in the negotiations that led to the 1996 Peace Accords, putting an end to Guatemala's 30-year-long Civil War. Between 1998 and 2000 he represented Guatemala on the Inter-American Defense Board.

General Pérez retired from active military duty in January 2000.