Zury Ríos
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Zury Ríos | |
---|---|
Congress of Guatemala | |
In office 14 January 1996 – 14 January 2012 | |
Constituency | National List |
Personal details | |
Born | Zury Mayté Ríos Sosa 24 January 1968 Guatemala City, Guatemala |
Political party | Valor |
Other political affiliations | Guatemalan Republican Front (1990–2013) |
Spouses | Jeovanny Chávez
(m. 1987, divorced)José García Bravatti
(m. 1995, divorced)Roberto López Villatoro
(m. 1999, divorced)Gregory Charles Smith
(m. 2020) |
Children | 1 |
Parents |
|
Profession | Lawyer |
Zury Mayté Ríos Sosa (born 24 January 1968) is a Guatemalan former politician. She is the daughter of the late general, and President of Guatemala Efraín Ríos Montt.
She began her political career with her father, whom she defended against accusations of genocide against him. She served four terms in
Family and education
Zury Ríos Sosa was born in January 1968, the third child of José Efraín Ríos Montt and María Teresa Sosa Ávila. Ríos Sosa's father, a former Guatemalan army general and illegitimate President of Guatemala, was found guilty of genocide against the Ixil Maya and crimes against humanity.
Her brothers, Enrique and Homero, both followed their father's military footsteps and enlisted in the
Zury Ríos studied at schools in Guatemala and Spain, where her father was assigned as military attaché following the 1974 presidential election, a process tainted by accusations of electoral fraud in which he had been a candidate. She graduated
She has been married four times. Prior to her current union, she was married to Jeovanny Chávez, deputy José García Bravatti, and businessman Roberto López Villatoro.[3] During her marriage to López Villatoro, she was also known as Ríos de López.
On 20 November 2004, at a ceremony held in General Ríos Montt's compound near
In March 2006 the Wellers announced that she was pregnant,[4] and a daughter, Marizú Catherine, was born on 17 August 2006 in a Guatemala City hospital. The child holds dual U.S. and Guatemalan nationality.
Political career
In 1989, Zury Ríos joined the public relations department of the newly-created
In 1996 she was elected to Congress as a national list deputy. In 1998 she was elected to the FRG's executive committee and political council.
In 1999 she was re-elected to Congress, again from her party's national list. During the 2000–04 legislative session, she served as one of the two deputy speakers and on the congressional foreign relations committee. She was elected to a third term in the
In 2003, prior to the election, Zury Ríos was accused of being one of the organizers of jueves negro ("Black Thursday").[5] In mid-2003, the FRG was again trying to get General Ríos Montt on to the presidential ticket by arguing that applying the constitutional ban preventing former coup leaders from seeking the presidency should not apply to him in accordance with the principle of non-retroactive application of the law. His 1982 coup d'état had preceded the enactment of the 1985 Constitution. After a series of court decisions ruling alternately that he could or could not run, culminating with a 21 July 2003 ruling by the Supreme Court suspending his candidacy, on Thursday, 24 July, FRG officials and supporters led a mass demonstration in Guatemala City to protest his disqualification. The demonstration degenerated into a bloody riot that left one man dead (journalist Héctor Fernando Ramírez) but was perceived as having been successful in forcing the decision to be made to put Ríos Montt's name on the presidential ballot since a week later, the Constitutional Court of Guatemala overturned the Supreme Court's ban.
Although General Ríos Montt ultimately lost the
She ran for president in 2015, finishing fifth with 5.9% of the vote. Her candidacy for the 2019 presidential election was rejected due to a ban, since repealed, on former dictators and their close relatives running for the presidency. She competed at the presidential elections again in 2023, as one of the favourites for the election due to her status as an opposition figure to the highly unpopular President Alejandro Giammattei, elected in 2019.[7]; however, despite initially polling well, leading most opinion polls with 20-25% of responses until April 2023, she ended up in sixth place with an underwhelming 8.69% of the votes.
Political positions
Ríos claims her father's political legacy. She is popular with the
She promises a particularly aggressive security policy against gangs and social organisations involved in conflicts with landowners.[7]
She also advocates the implementation of policies expected by conservative evangelicals on issues such as abortion.[7]
She defended the dissolution of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), which was investigating corruption in the political class.[7]
References
- ^ "Otra denuncia contra Ríos Sosa". Prensa Libre. Archived from the original on 14 December 2004. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
- ^ The Christian Science Monitor (19 October 2005). "Guatemalans wary of military aid". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
- ^ "Zury Ríos camina a nueva boda". Prensa Libre. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
- ^ http://www.soapblox.net/liberilview/showDiary.do?diaryId=186[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Political Violence in Guatemala". Archived from the original on 7 July 2006. Retrieved 21 May 2006.
- ^ "Mi papá quiere ser presidente". Archived from the original on 15 March 2007. Retrieved 21 June 2006.
- ^ a b c d "Meet the Candidates: Guatemala". Americas Quarterly. 19 January 2023.
- ^ Maldonado, Carlos S. (9 February 2023). "Zury Ríos y el pasado sangriento en Guatemala de su padre, el dictador Efraín Ríos Montt". El País (in Spanish).
External links