National Convergence Front

The National Convergence Front (Spanish: Frente de Convergencia Nacional, FCN–Nación) is a right-wing political party in Guatemala.[7]

National Convergence Front
PresidentJimmy Morales
General SecretaryJavier Alfonso Hernández Franco
FoundedJanuary 7, 2008 (2008-01-07)
IdeologyNationalism[1]
Conservatism[2][3]
Political positionRight-wing[4][5][6]
Colors  Blue
Seats in Congress
8 / 160
Website
www.fcnnacion.com

History

The party was established on 7 January 2008. It was initiated by a group of retired army officers, including veterans of Guatemalan Civil War, affiliated with the Military Veterans Association of Guatemala AVEMILGUA.[8] FCN did not nominate a presidential candidate in the 2011 general elections, but contested the Congressional elections, receiving 0.5% of the vote and failing to win a seat.[9] In March 2013, the party chose the popular comic TV actor Jimmy Morales as its General Secretary.[10]

Morales was the party's presidential candidate in the 2015 elections, which he won after receiving the largest vote share in the first round (24%) and then beating former first lady Sandra Torres in the run-off with 67% of the vote. In the Congressional elections the FCN received the fifth-highest vote share (9%), winning 11 of the 158 seats.[11]

FCN's head of the national list was Édgar Justino Ovalle Maldonado who is considered to be Jimmy Morales' "right-hand man". He commanded counter-insurgency operations in the Ixil Community in the early 1980s during which several massacres against the Ixil Mayas took place.[12] The violence against the Ixil was acknowledged as a genocide by the Supreme Court of Guatemala, but is denied by Jimmy Morales.[13]

Electoral history

Presidential elections
Election Party candidate Running mate Votes % Votes % Result
First round Second round
2011 Did not run
2015 Jimmy Morales Jafeth Cabrera 1,152,394 23.99% 2,751,058 67.44% Elected Y
2019 Estuardo Galdámez Betty Marroquín Silva 180,983 4.12% - - Lost N

Congressional elections
Election Votes % Seats +/– Position
2011 23,272 0.53%
0 / 158
 14th
2015 National 403,086 8.84%
11 / 158
 11 5th
District 338,060 7.22%
2019 211,453 5.23%
8 / 160
 3 5th

References
  1. "Celebrity outsider leads in Guatemalan election, second place open". DPA International. 8 September 2015.
  2. Deborah Bonello; Anna-Cat Brigida (6 September 2015). "Runoff expected in Guatemala race as ex-president waits in a military jail". Los Angeles Times.
  3. "Comedian Jimmy Morales frontrunner in Guatemalan election as former president Otto Perez sits in jail". ABC News. 6 September 2015.
  4. Orlando Perez (8 September 2015). "What happens now in Guatemala?". LatinAmericaGoesGlobal.
  5. "Jimmy Morales, el comediante conservador que podría ser presidente de Guatemala". BBC Mundo. 7 September 2015.
  6. Henry Morales (4 September 2015). "Jimmy Morales, el comediante que quiere ser un presidente serio". Prensa Libre.
  7. Guatemala: ente electoral ordena cancelar el partido del presidente Morales
  8. Steven Dudley (7 September 2015). "Guatemala Votes for Military-backed Candidate". InSightCrime.
  9. Republic of Guatemala: Legislative elections of 11 September 2011 Adam Carr
  10. "Nombran al comediante Jimmy Morales como secretario general de FCN". Emisoras Unidas. 10 March 2013. Archived from the original on 13 March 2013. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  11. Congresistas señalados son reelectos Prensa Libre, 8 September 2015
  12. "La mano derecha de Jimmy: un oficial de operaciones contrainsurgentes". Centro de Medios Independientes (CMI). 4 September 2015.
  13. Louisa Reynolds (10 June 2015). "In Guatemala, anti-establishment presidential candidate benefits from corruption scandals". The Tico Times.
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