Otto Pérez Molina Biography

Otto Perez Molina is a retired military officer of the Guatemalan army and is currently the President of Guatemala. Having served many years in the Guatemalan army, he has an abundance of military experience and has held many titles. Some of his former titles include Director of Military Intelligence, Presidential Chief of Staff, and chief representative of the military for the Guatemalan Peace Accords. He was instrumental in ending the 36-year-long Guatemalan Civil War. Aside from these achievements, Molina has been accused of human rights abuses and corruption during his stint in the army. After retiring from the army, Otto Perez Molina founded the ‘Patriotic Party’, a right-wing political party. He ran for the 2007 presidential election but lost narrowly. In 2011, he again ran for presidency and promised to tackle Guatemala’s high crime rate and Mexican drug gangs menace with “iron fist”. This time he won the election with 54% of vote and became the first military official to be elected to the office of the President of Guatemala. As president, Molina has made Guatemala a much more attractive country to do business with and has been awarded for his ability to improve both social and economic aspects of the country’s infrastructure