(12 Jan 2008)
1. Set-up of Guatemalan President-elect Alvaro Colom ++MUTE++
2. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Alvaro Colom, Guatemalan president-elect:
"We are very conscious that changes in Guatemala have to be gradual, firm, but gradual. There cannot be radical changes. Guatemala is a country with a conservative and traditional base. Our indigenous people are traditional and conservative. We want change but with no more violence, no more traumas with a lot of consensus with a lot of dialogue. Any other method would lead to confrontations and polarisation again, and that is exactly what we want to avoid."
3. Close of Colom ++MUTE++
4. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Alvaro Colom, Guatemalan president-elect:
"There are different shades and different intensities to each country (in Latin America) but what I value so much is that each country has built its own model. It is not the same recipe for all. For example, President Lula, President Cristina Kirchner and President Bachelet are in the same range but one can't be compared with the other because they have different types of governments, different parties and political systems. In guatemala we want to establish a democratic social model but that is truly Guatemalan."
6. Mid of Colom talking
7. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Alvaro Colom, Guatemalan president-elect:
"In my sincere opinion, any insurgent group is illegal, whatever the ideal that motivates them, it is an illegal action, because there is a legitimate state."
8. Mid of Alavaro Colom and reporter
9. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Alvaro Colom, Guatemalan president-elect:
"I plan to intensify and strengthen all relations with Mexico; social, economic, political, cultural because they are our neighbours. We share a border of 974 kilometres. It is a complicated border and we plan to turn it from a border of threat to a border of opportunities."
FILE:
Guatemala City, Guatemala 9 September 2007
10. Colom casting ballot
FILE:
Guatemala City, Guatemala 31 October 2007
11. Close of Colom campaign poster
12. Mid of campaign rally
STORYLINE:
Guatemala's first socio-democratic president in five decades spoke on Saturday saying that one of his first moves as leader of this Central American nation will be to intensify and strengthen all relations with Mexico; social, economic, political and cultural.
On Monday Alvaro Colom will be sworn in as Guatemala's president.
Other changes Colom hopes to make include a one hundred day emergency rule.
But Colom also warns that change in the conservative nation cannot be radical.
"We are very conscious that changes in Guatemala have to be gradual, firm, but gradual," Colom said in an interview with AP Television.
"There cannot be radical changes. Guatemala is a country with a conservative and traditional base," he added.
From 1960 to 1996 Guatemala experienced one of the bloodiest civil wars in the region in which marxist rebels fought to overthrow a series of military and right-wing governments.
When asked whether his government would form part of the bloc of Latin American countries led by Venezuela, and under the mandate of Hugo Chavez, Colom said he preferred each country to build its own model.
"There are different shades and different intensities to each country ( in Latin America) but what I value so much is that each country has built its own model. It is not the same recipe for all," he told AP Television.
"In guatemala we want to establish a democratic social model but that is truly Guatemalan."
Colom expects to meet with Chavez during his swearing in ceremony.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
