GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) ? A retired right-wing general promising to stamp out spiraling crime is favored to win power in Guatemala on Sunday, stirring up memories of its troubled years of military rule.
Supporters of the silver-haired Otto Perez, 60, believe he is the best candidate to tackle rising crime in the coffee- and sugar-exporting country, which has one of the highest murder rates in the Americas.
Although some fret about Perez's military past and his role in a 36-year civil war, polls ahead of the presidential election on Sunday showed him well ahead of his centrist rival Manuel Baldizon, a businessman with a populist message to help the elderly and the poor.
Both Perez and Baldizon, 41, say they will boost security spending but Perez has made a promise of a "mano dura," or "firm hand" against crime, his campaign slogan.
"Yes, we're worried by his participation in the internal conflict, but now we're worse off than ever. Just look at the violence," said nurse Blanca Martinez, 48, speaking above the din of blaring campaign songs at Perez's final rally.
Perez has pledged to cut the murder rate by half and expand the army and police force to fight incursions by brutal drug cartels from neighboring Mexico, as well as tackle the violent street gangs that wreak havoc in towns and cities.
He won 36 percent of the vote in a first round of voting in September, compared to Baldizon's 23 percent.
SPECTER OF WAR
Perez's military past may weigh more in rural areas, which suffered most during the 1960-1996 civil war. About a quarter of a million people were killed or disappeared.
If elected, Perez would be the first military man at the country's helm since a return to democracy in 1986.
He commanded troops and served as the head of the military intelligence unit during the war and there have been allegations that troops under his command committed abuses, but he has never been charged and dismisses the accusations.
"I can tell you it's totally false," he told Reuters on Saturday. He was for long seen by U.S. officials as a progressive officer inside the army and has said he will allow investigations into rights abuses during the conflict.
A U.N.-backed Truth Commission found the vast majority of war atrocities were committed by the military. Perez responds to questions about his own role in the war with a reminder that he signed the peace accords in 1996.
Since then, analysts say not enough progress has been made in implementing the accords and that the elections come at a crucial point in the country's young democracy.
"Guatemala is a very unequal society," said Javier Oliva, a political scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). "And there is not great faith in democracy."
A 2011 survey by Latinobarometro, a Chile-based pollster, showed only 36 percent of Guatemalans felt democracy was the best form of government, the lowest rate in Latin America.
Not everyone trusts Perez's talk of democracy and Baldizon, who defected from the ruling National Unity Party in 2008 to found his own Renewed Democratic Liberty party (Lider), has won support from many who lost family members during the war.
"A civilian can govern a country but a soldier leaves many dead and killing people is a crime. Criminals should be in prison, not be presidential candidates," said Eduardo Gomez, 58, a publicity worker at a recent Baldizon campaign event.
More than half of Guatemalans live below the poverty line and for many voters jobs and the economy are the most urgent issues.
Perez says he will promoting tourism and foreign investment while Baldizon says he will make businesses pay employees bigger bonuses and give away fertilizer to help small farmers.
(Additional reporting by Alex Leff in Costa Rica; Editing by Kieran Murray)
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