Abstract
This article examines youth-led anti-corruption protests in Guatemala in 2015, which contributed to the resignation of the president and vice-president. It outlines three key factors that were part of the initial success of the #RenunciaYa social media campaign, and the subsequent struggle towards political and structural reforms. First, it can be regarded as part of a much longer history of rights-led civic engagement and protest. Second, while social media proved indispensable for mobilising civic action, it was insufficient to reach beyond urban-based youth activists. Third, the removal of the president and vice-president was possible not only because of public pressure generated by anti-corruption youth activists, but also because of the longer-term work of two Attorney Generals and the International Commission Against Impunity in highlighting the fight against corruption within the national political agenda. Finally, the article argues that civic participation after conflict requires at least one generation to spring.
Highlights
1 Introduction This article examines the recent case of youth-led anti-corruption protests in Guatemala in 2015, which resulted in the resignation of the president and vice-president
8 Conclusions This case of the 2015 youth-led anti-corruption movement in Guatemala shows what has become possible in terms of peaceful political protests for a generation not directly touched by the violence and repression of the country’s 30-plus years of civil conflict
The urban youth who initiated #RenunciaYa had no direct knowledge of civic protest, nor were they connected in any direct way to the rural, indigenous movements that had formed the core of rights-focused political mobilisation in the latter half of the twentieth century
Summary
This article examines the recent case of youth-led anti-corruption protests in Guatemala in 2015, which resulted in the resignation of the president and vice-president. While social media proved indispensable as a platform for communication to mobilise civic action, it was not sufficient to reach beyond urban-based youth activists It was the interplay of social and traditional media that brought other groups – small business, indigenous rights organisations, and older generations – into the fold of the anti-corruption movement. In light of having learned the limitations of targeting individually corrupt actors, versus seeking change at a systemic level, these organisations have since implemented a dynamic learning exchange with historical indigenous and peasant movements that they call ‘weaving the future’ This ‘weaving the future’ involves pulling together the threads of past civic protest together with contemporary calls for judicial, legislative, and political reforms. What began as an urban youth-led anti‐corruption movement in 2015 has since split along divergent ideological lines (conservative, left, right, religious)
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