Sandra Torres

Sandra Julieta Torres Casanova (locally ['sandɾa xu'lieta 'tores kasa'noba]) is a Guatemalan politician who was First Lady of Guatemala from 2008 to 2011 and unsuccessful candidate for president in 2015 and 2019.

This article is about the Guatemalan politician. For the Argentine athlete, see Sandra Torres (athlete).
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Torres and the second or maternal family name is Casanova.
Sandra Torres
Secretary General of the National Unity of Hope
Assumed office
May 20, 2012
Preceded byÁlvaro Colom
First Lady of Guatemala
In role
January 14, 2008 – April 7, 2011
PresidentÁlvaro Colom
Preceded byWendy de Berger
Succeeded byRosa Leal de Pérez
Personal details
Born
Sandra Julieta Torres Casanova

(1955-10-05) 5 October 1955
Melchor de Mencos, Guatemala
Political partyNational Unity of Hope
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 2002; div. 2011)​
EducationUniversity of San Carlos of Guatemala
Rafael Landívar University

Early life and education

Sandra Julieta Torres Casanova was born on the 5th of October 1955, in the municipality of Melchor de Mencos, in the department of Petén.[1] She is the daughter of Enrique Torres and Teresa Casanova. She has a degree in Communication Sciences from the University San Carlos de Guatemala.[2] She also has a master's degree in Public Politics from the University of Rafael Landívar de Guatemala.[3]

Career

She has spent most of her professional lifetime promoting politics, plans, programs, projects and laws concerning social development, specially of women, children and people with special needs. Within the legal initiatives that she has promoted from inside her political party – the National Unity of Hope (UNE) – (of which her former husband is the Leader and in which she is also a director) are:

  1. Initiative of Law Against Feminicide. Approved in the first semester of 2008.
  2. Initiative of Law of Responsible Parenting. Approved in August 2008.

Sandra Torres de Colom was founder of the Coordinadora Nacional de la Mujer (National Coordinator of the Women) for the political party Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza, through which more than 30,000 Guatemalan women (Garifuna and Xinca amongst them) have channeled their specific demands. The action in favor of women was reflected within the corporate area. Sandra Torres, as a businessperson, worked at private companies and had been responsible for textile production and administration of clothing factories. She also was president of Consejo de Cohesión Social (Counsel of Social Cohesion), an institute in charge of orienting social investment for the eradication of extreme poverty and combating poverty in general. The group employs programs and projects focused on improving the coverage and quality of education, healthcare, infrastructure, sustainability and national reconstruction (specifically pertaining to the disasters Hurricane Stan, landslides in the county of La Unión, Zacapa, and Storm 16).

Presidential candidate

During the 2008 presidential term of her husband Álvaro Colom, she had a proactive role in many social programs, creating a platform for the distribution of government aid to the poor. She became quite popular among the poor and hence she decided to run for president in the 2011 Guatemalan general election. However, she was disqualified from being a candidate since the Constitution of Guatemala, in subsection c of article 186, prohibits relatives of the President and the Vice President on duty, to run as candidates. Even though she divorced her husband President Álvaro Colom, the move was seen as an attempt to circumvent the electoral law.[4][5]

With no restrictions from the Constitution she was able to run in the Presidential election of 2015 as a candidate for the same political party that her ex-husband was elected, the social-democratic National Unity of Hope party (UNE). This time she finished second in the first round of the election on 6 September, narrowly beating the third-placed Manuel Baldizón, and qualifying for the runoff against first-placed Jimmy Morales.[6][7][8] She lost the election in the second round.

She ran again in the 2019 Presidential election, and led in some polls, though she had faced a legal challenge by the Constitutional Court over potential campaign finance violations.[9] during the last election, which she denied.

Torres ran for the social-democratic National Unity of Hope party (UNE).

Torres says she would provide "comprehensive solutions like development, fight against poverty and job opportunities" to try to convince Guatemalans to stay in the country rather than migrating to the United States.[10][11]

Torres pledged health and education reforms as well as jobs to stem the flow of migration to the US. In an appeal to more conservative voters, she vowed to oppose abortion and same-sex marriage.[12] She did not attend either the first round or second round debates, despite having been invited to both.

She was defeated in the second round of the 2019 Presidential election by Alejandro Giammattei.[13]

Arrest

On September 2, 2019, she was arrested at her home on charges of violating campaign finance rules.[14]

References
  1. Claudia Palma. Sandra Torres: mitad beliceña y mitad petenera. El Periódico de Guatemala, 18 de mayo de 2011.
  2. "Torres, la única mujer con posibilidades para pasar a segunda vuelta" [Torres, the only woman with possibilities to go to runoff]. Prensa Libre. 4 Sep 2015. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 5 Apr 2019.
  3. "Facebook". facebook.com.
  4. Pablo Ordaz (2011-03-23). "Guatemala: divorcio por amor al poder" [Guatemala: divorce for love of power]. El País (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2019-11-23.
  5. Ezra Fieser (2011-06-17). "Guatemala's presidential divorce of convenience". Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2021-01-22. Torres divorced Colom to skirt a constitutional provision banning family members of sitting president from running for the following election.
  6. "Guatemala ex-first lady Sandra Torres in presidential run-off". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2019-09-04.
  7. Juan Montes (15 September 2015). "Guatemalan Former First Lady Sandra Torres in Presidential Runoff". WSJ.
  8. "Guatemala Comic to Face Former First Lady in Presidency Run-off". Voice of America. Archived from the original on 2019-05-17.
  9. Cuffe, Sandra (15 May 2019). "Guatemala court rules popular anti-corruption crusader ineligible to run for president". Washington Post. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  10. "Guatemala election: Uncertainty reigns as top candidates barred". BBC News. 2019-06-18. Archived from the original on 2020-11-08. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
  11. "Top contenders for president in Guatemala election". Washington Post. 2019-06-16. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
  12. https://au.news.yahoo.com/corruption-tainted-guatemala-set-elect-president-054250817--spt.html
  13. "Guatemala center-left candidate concedes defeat in presidential..." Reuters. 2019-08-12. Archived from the original on 2019-08-12. Retrieved 2019-08-12.
  14. "Guatemala arrests former presidential candidate on eve of U.N..." Reuters. 2019-09-02. Archived from the original on 2019-12-14. Retrieved 2019-09-03.
Honorary titles
Preceded by
Wendy de Berger		 First Lady of Guatemala
2008–2011		 Succeeded by
Rosa Leal de Pérez
Party political offices
Preceded by
Álvaro Colom		 National Unity of Hope nominee for President of Guatemala
2011 (withdrew), 2015, 2019		 Most recent
Preceded by
Jairo Joaquín Flores		 Secretary General of the National Unity of Hope
2012–present		 Incumbent
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