The recent salary increase of the deputies of the Congress of Guatemala has caused a strong national discontent and analysts consulted by the free press and Guatevisión ensure that this fact is “antidemocratic and authoritarian.”
Since November last year, the 160 legislators were awarded an increase of 60.2% in their salaries, going from winning Q29 thousand 150 to Q46 thousand 700 per month.
For the political analyst, Pedro Cruz, the discontent of the population is because there are no results “and because there is a lot of corruption, while unfortunately the legislative agenda and the needs of the country do not go hand in hand.”
This decision was classified as an antidemocratic and authoritarian act, evidencing the distancing between deputies and the true needs of citizenship, according to Renzo Rosal, political analyst.
“In particular, I believe that the salary increase is an arbitrary measure, a totally unjustified measure. It is a measure that only confirms that the legislative body is, at present, one of the two main authoritarian sands of the country, one is the Public Ministry and Congress is the second,” said Rosal.
Amid the controversy, some deputies sought to take advantage of the situation to promote their personal image, while others tried to justify the increase in various ways. For independent political scientist Douglas González, several legislators opted for strategies to try to mitigate or buy time in front of the population.
“This measure was also rejected by the population because what was really observed was a strategy to position itself through salary increase,” González said.
Citizen outrage has manifested itself in different ways; However, experts consider that there is no sufficiently strong mobilization that manages to reverse this measure. In addition, they agree that the official bloc has not shown a forceful position against the salary increase, which leaves the door open for those parliamentarians who seek to keep this increase.
According to analysts, to prevent the measure from being discussed and eventually repealed, the deputies have chosen not to attend block leadership meetings, a strategy that demonstrates the lack of political will to correct the increase. Although there is a procedure to reverse it, it depends more on internal interests than on established legal mechanisms.
This salary increase has raised the monthly cost of the Form of the Congress to Q10.6 million, which represents an annual expense of Q33.7 million for the State.