Political Quotes

“Madam President, it was bullets not ballots. Bullets were the way that policies were set when I visited Guatemala in the spring of 1980: a soldier with a gun on every corner of Guatemala City, the army going village to village killing indigenous young men, rebels attacking government officials, and rightwing death squads assassinating professors and students. I had the unfortunate experience of coming around a street corner just after a death squad had assassinated a professor at San Carlos University and left his body lying in the street. Well, four decades ago--that is a long time ago--and, fortunately, Guatemala has come a long way since I visited as a young man. Now, the battles over the country's future are being fought not with bullets but with ballots. But maintaining the integrity of balloting, the peaceful transfer of power, which are the hallmarks, the foundations of representative democracy, is not inevitable. And in Guatemala, the system is being stressed. In Guatemala, the system is being tested. The ballot box is beautiful because it creates the opportunity for citizens to call on their leaders to change direction, actually, to select leaders who are calling for a change in direction. If the government isn't serving the people, the people can change the government. And every now and then, one of these elections is particularly exciting, and Guatemala's recent Presidential election has certainly been exciting.…”