Greek Authorities Say 18 Bodies Found in an Area Struck by a Major Wildfire

ALEXANDROUPOLIS, Greece — Firefighters scouring the area of a major wildfire in northeastern Greece burning out of control for a fourth day found the bodies of 18 people, authorities said Tuesday. They were examining whether the group might have been migrants who entered the country through the nearby border.

The discovery in the Avanta area of the city of Alexandroupolis came as hundreds of firefighters battled dozens of wildfires breaking out across the country, fanned by gale-force winds. On Monday, two people died and two firefighters were injured in separate fires in northern and central Greece.

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With their hot, dry summers, southern European countries are particularly prone to wildfires. Another major blaze was burning across Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands for a week, although no injuries or damage to homes was reported from that blaze.

European Union officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017.

In Greece, police activated the country’s Disaster Victim Identification Team to identify the 18 bodies, which were found Tuesday near a shack in the Avanta area, Ioannis Artopios, a spokesman for the fire department, said in a televised statement.

“Given that there have been no reports of a missing person or missing residents from the surrounding areas, the possibility is being investigated that these are people who had entered the country illegally,” Artopios said.

Alexandroupolis lies near the country’s border with Turkey, along a route often taken by people fleeing poverty and conflict in the Middle East, Asia and Africa and seeking to enter the European Union.

Avanta, like many nearby villages and settlements, had been under evacuation orders, with push alerts sent to mobile phones in the area.

Overnight, a massive wall of flames raced through forests toward Alexandroupolis, prompting authorities to evacuate another eight villages and the city’s hospital. Flames turned the sky over the city red as choking smoke and swirling flecks of ash filled the air.

About 65 of the more than 100 patients in the hospital were transported to a ferry boat docked in the city’s port, while others were taken to other hospitals in northern Greece. The ferry later set sail with more than 20 of the patients for the port town of Kavala, where they were to be transferred to another hospital.

Deputy Health Minister Dimitris Vartzopoulos, speaking on Greece’s Skai television, said smoke and ash in the air around the Alexandrouplolis hospital were the main reasons behind the decision to evacuate the facility.

“We evacuated within four hours,” he said.

The coast guard said patrol boats and private vessels evacuated another 40 people by sea from beach areas west of Alexandroupolis and were ferrying them to the city’s port.

In the northeastern Evros border region, a fire was burning through forest in a protected national park, with satellite imagery showing smoke from the blaze blanketing much of northern and western Greece.

New fires broke out in several parts of the country during the day Tuesday, including in woodland northwest of Athens and an industrial area on the western fringes of the Greek capital.

Small explosions resounded from the industrial area of Aspropyrgos as the flames reached warehouses and factories, while authorities shut down a highway and ordered the evacuation of nearby villages.

With firefighting forces stretched to the limit, Greece appealed for help from the European Union’s civil protection mechanism.

Five firefighting planes from Croatia, Germany and Sweden, and a helicopter, 58 firefighters and nine water tanks from the Czech Republic were heading to Greece Tuesday, while 56 Romanian firefighters and two water-dropping aircraft from Cyprus arrived on Monday. French firefighters were also in Greece, helping tackle a blaze on the island of Evia on Monday.

“We are mobilizing actually almost one third of the aircraft we have in the rescEU fleet,” said EU spokesman Balazs Ujvari.

The fire risk level for several regions, including the wider Athens area, was listed as “extreme” for a second day Tuesday. Authorities have banned public access to mountains and forests in those regions until at least Wednesday morning and ordered military patrols.

In Spain, firefighters battled to control a wildfire burning for a week on the popular Canary Islands tourist destination of Tenerife. It is estimated that the blaze, which has scorched 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres), has already burnt a third of Tenerife’s woodlands.

“The wildfire may be stabilized by tonight,” said Tenerife Gov. Rosa Dávila, who nonetheless added that the blaze “is still active.”

More than 12,000 people were evacuated during the past week. Authorities said Tuesday that 1,500 have been able to return to their homes. Authorities have described the fire as the worst in decades on the Atlantic archipelago.

Large parts of Spain were under alert for wildfires due to a heatwave that sent temperatures spiking over 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit). While Spain’s south often has extremely high temperatures, the country’s weather agency issued an alert for the northern Basque Country, where temperatures were forecast to reach 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit) Wednesday.

Greece’s deadliest wildfire killed 104 people in 2018, at a seaside resort near Athens that residents had not been warned to evacuate. Authorities have since erred on the side of caution, issuing swift mass evacuation orders whenever inhabited areas are under threat.

Last month, a wildfire on the resort island of Rhodes forced the evacuation of some 20,000 tourists. Days later, two air force pilots were killed when their water-dropping plane crashed while diving low to tackle a blaze on Evia.

In Italy, authorities evacuated 700 people from homes and a campsite on the Tuscan island of Elba after a fire broke out late Monday.

According to the Italian Society of Environmental Geology, more than 1,100 fires in Europe this summer have consumed 2,842 square kilometers (about 1,100 square miles), well above an average of 724 fires a year recorded from 2006-2022. The fires have removed wooded areas capable of absorbing 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.

“When we add the fires in Canada, the United States, Africa, Asia and Australia to those in Europe, it seems that the situation is getting worse every year,″ said SIGEA president Antonello Fiore.

—Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press writers Joe Wilson in Barcelona, Raf Casert in Brussels and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed.

source https://time.com/6307152/greece-wildfires-bodies-found/

Ecuadorians Vote to Stop Oil Drilling in the Amazon Rainforest

Ecuadorians voted on Sunday to stop an oil-drilling project in the Yasuni region of the Amazon with 59% voting yes on a proposition that will end the practice.

Ecuador’s government estimates that 1.67 billion barrels of oil are located under Yasuni National Park, home to over 4,000 plant species, 173 different types of mammals, and at least two uncontacted indigenous tribes. According to UNESCO, it is one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. At today’s oil price of approximately $80 per barrel, the oil under the park would be worth over $133 billion.

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In 2007, shortly after he was elected, Ecuador’s then-president Rafael Correa introduced a proposal asking that wealthy nations compensate the Ecuadorian government for not drilling in Yasuni park. Correa asked for $7.2 billion over the course of 10 years, which was equivalent to half the revenue expected to be generated by the oil reserves. The move initially received press from environmental activists, and both Spain and Germany pledged their support. However, a trust fund that the government set up to receive deposits received only $13 million by 2013. 

Ultimately, his plan failed to get the necessary support from other nations; Correa and his government announced that they would go ahead with drilling. Ecuador, like many other low- and middle-income countries, was then facing a mounting debt crisis, and paying extremely high interest rates after defaulting twice in the previous 20 years. At the time, leaders in the country felt that increasing fossil fuel extraction could help relieve some of that debt—one third of Ecuador’s government revenue comes from oil. Drilling in the Yasuni region officially began in 2016 and the country has since begun selling oil from the region to the rest of the world. Currently, over 66% of oil from the Yasuni region is shipped to the United States.

Subsequent governments have maintained that approach to managing Ecuador’s resources—indeed, Guillermo Lasso, elected to the presidency in 2021, has suggested doubling down on it. In a speech last year, Lasso told the public that “Now that the global trend is to abandon fossil fuels, the time has come to extract every last drop of benefit from our oil, so that it can serve the poorest while respecting the environment.” 

But indigenous communities disagree with the government’s rhetoric that their approach is respecting the environment. “It hurts me to see the little that is left of our rainforest inside this protected area,” Nemo Guiquita, a leader of the Waorani tribe which is indigenous to the Ecuadorian Amazon, told NBC News in 2021. “We should be fighting to protect our rainforest in Ecuador, but instead they are granting more oil concessions.” 

Indigenous leaders were at the forefront of pushing for a ban on oil drilling in the Yasuni. In recent weeks, a group of indigenous Waorani activists traveled to 12 cities throughout the country to persuade residents to vote yes on the referendum. 

Roy Brouwer, an environmental economist at the University of Waterloo, who conducted a study on the economic value of the Amazon rainforest, says that Indigenous populations tend to place an extremely high value on the environmental sanctity of the forest. 

“They’ve lived in the Amazon for 11,000 years. How are you going to compensate these people by taking away their livelihood, cutting the forest and having them move out of the area where they live for 11,000 years? There’s no monetary compensation for that.”

source https://time.com/6307145/ecuador-rainforest-oil-vote/

Fukushima Nuclear Plant To Release Treated Radioactive Water To Sea As Soon As Thursday

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(TOKYO) — The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will start releasing treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean as early as Thursday — a controversial step that the government says is essential for the decades of work needed to clean up the facility that had reactor meltdowns 12 years ago.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave the final go-ahead Tuesday at a meeting of Cabinet ministers involved in the plan and instructed the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, or TEPCO, to be ready to start the coastal release Thursday if weather and sea conditions permit.

Kishida said at the meeting that the release of the water is a key step in the plant decommissioning and Fukushima prefecture’s recovery from the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami disaster.

He said the government has done everything for now to ensure the plan’s safety, protect the reputation of Japan’s fishing industry and clearly explain the scientific basis of the move. He pledged that the government will continue those efforts until the end of the release and decommissioning, which will take decades.

“The government will take responsibility until the disposal of ALPS-treated water is completed, even if it takes several decades,” Kishida said.

In Seoul, Park Ku-yeon, first vice minister of South Korea’s Office for Government Policy Coordination, told a briefing that officials confirmed Japan would discharge the wastewater in line with its initial plan.

If it does not stick to the plan, Park said, South Korea will request Japan to immediately stop the discharge which could threaten safety of South Koreans. Opposition lawmakers and activists protested vehemently, demanding Japan immediately scrap the plan.

Hong Kong and Macau announced that they are banning products from Fukushima and nine other prefectures in response to Tokyo’s announcement Tuesday, while China has stepped up radiation testing on Japanese fisheries products, delaying customs clearance.

A massive earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s cooling systems, causing three of its reactors to melt and contaminating their cooling water. The water, 1.34 million tons, has been collected, filtered and stored in about 1,000 tanks, which fill much of the plant’s grounds and will reach their capacity in early 2024.

The release of the treated wastewater has faced strong opposition from Japanese fishing organizations, which worry about further damage to the reputation of their seafood as they struggle to recover from the nuclear disaster. Groups in South Korea and China have also raised concerns, turning it into a political and diplomatic issue.

The government and TEPCO, say the water must be removed to make room for the plant’s decommissioning and to prevent accidental leaks from the tanks.

Junichi Matsumoto, TEPCO executive in charge of the water release, said in an interview with The Associated Press last month that the water release marks “a milestone,” but is still only an initial step in a daunting decommissioning process.

The government and TEPCO say the water will be treated and then diluted with seawater to levels safer than international standards.

TEPCO plans to release 7,800 tons of treated water in the 17-day first round of the release, Matsumoto said, adding that the idea is not to rush the release and minimize environmental impact. The company aims to release 31,200 tons of the treated water by the end of March 2024, which would empty only 10 tanks at the site. The pace will pick up later.

The seawater and marine life will be tested and the results will be disclosed on government and TEPCO websites.

The International Atomic Energy Agency in a final report in July concluded that the release, if conducted as designed, will cause negligible impact on the environment and human health. After taking into possible bioconcentration of low-dose radionuclides that remain in the water, the environmental and health impact is still negligible, TEPCO officials said.

On Tuesday, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement that the U.N. agency office opened at the plant in July will continue monitoring the water release so it remains consistent with the safety standards and publish real-time monitoring data and other information.

Scientists generally support the IAEA view, but some say long-term impact of the low-dose radioactivity that remains in the water needs attention.

Kishida’s government has stepped up outreach efforts to explain the plan to neighboring countries, especially South Korea, to keep the issue from interfering with their relationship.

TEPCO said it is working toward accepting application for damages caused by China’s export restrictions on Japanese seafood.

source https://time.com/6307146/fukushima-nuclear-plant-water-release/

What Caused Tropical Storm Hilary’s Record-Breaking Rainfall

A natural El Nino, human-caused climate change, a stubborn heat dome over the nation’s midsection and other factors cooked up Tropical Storm Hilary’s record-breaking slosh into California and Nevada, scientists figure.

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Cooked up is the key phrase, since hot water and hot air were crucial in rapidly growing Hilary and then steering the storm on an unusual path that dumped 10 months of rain in a single weekend in normally bone-dry places. Nearly a foot of rain fell in parts of Southern California’s mountains, while cities smashed summertime records.

“It was a combination of sort of a perfect situation of everything coming together in a way that made the storm possible,” said University of Albany atmospheric scientist Kristen Corbosiero, an expert on Pacific hurricanes.

It’s never easy to attribute a single event to climate change, especially so quickly and with El Nino being a prominent factor, said former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hurricane and climate scientist Jim Kossin, now with the nonprofit First Street Foundation.

To understand Hilary’s unusual path, it’s best to go where the storm began.

Hilary formed in an area south of Baja California and west of Mexico. Many storms form in the Eastern Pacific there, but most move harmlessly west into the open Pacific or into Mexico and then eventually — weaker — into the U.S. Southwest.

It’s one of the most active birthing places for tropical cyclones, Corbosiero said. But the water — fuel for the heat engine that is a hurricane – was about 3.5 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit (2 to 3 degrees Celsius) hotter than normal at the surface and that warmth went deep, said UCLA western weather scientist Daniel Swain.

So Hilary rapidly intensified, gaining 75 mph in wind speed strength in just 24 hours — going from nearly nothing to a Category 4 hurricane in no time.

“We’ve been seeing (rapid intensification) more and more recently,” said Kossin, who did a study showing this phenomenon increasing.

“For a storm to intensify the way Hilary did everything has to be ideal,” Kossin said. There has to be warm water, it has to run deep and there has to be little to no crosswinds decapitating the storm, he said. Hilary checked all those boxes.

The water was warm both because of the natural El Nino, a warming of parts of the equatorial Pacific that changes weather worldwide, and because of long-term climate change that has been shattering records for heat deeper in the oceans, scientists said.

UCLA’s Swain said there are three main reasons storms that form where Hilary did don’t normally swamp Southern California.

First, unlike the hurricane-prone Atlantic coast where the warm Gulf stream is ideal for storms, the coast along California and Baja California is cold and it brings cold water up from the deep, Swain said: “That’s a real hurricane killer.”

The normal atmosphere in California is also a hurricane killer. It’s dry and has downward motion, while storms like upward motion, Swain said.

But Hilary had grown so strong and big that even though it rapidly weakened when it hit the cold water, it was still packing enough of a punch when it got to California, Kossin said.

The reason it got to California is that the third factor — usually prevailing winds pushing storms from east to west – failed to protect the Pacific coast this time, Swain said.

Hot air to the east and a low-pressure system to the west combined to push and pull Hilary up into California instead of the normal paths for eastern Pacific storms, Corbosiero and other scientists said. And a big hot air mass sitting over the middle United States blocked the storm from turning east.

What’s unusual is that big hot air mass just hasn’t been moving. Some scientists, including Woodwell Climate Research Institute’s Jennifer Francis, have theorized that especially in summer there are more and more situations where weather patterns get stuck and it seems to be connected to changes in the Arctic because of global warming. Other scientists disagree. It’s one of the biggest unresolved issues in mainstream climate science, Swain said.

“Hilary is a rare storm but almost certainly we will see equally bizarre and destructive but different events unfold as the globe continues to warm generally and this El Nino continues to strengthen,” Francis said.

Last October, MIT hurricane scientist Kerry Emanuel was at UCLA giving a guest lecture on the rare chance of a tropical storm or hurricane hitting Los Angeles. His computer models, factoring in climate change and other ingredients, found that the type of storm that would dump 15.7 inches of rain (40 centimeters) on downtown Los Angeles used to have a one-in-108-year chance of happening, at least until 2010. But now that type of storm has a one-in-30-year chance, he figured.

“Hilary was substantially more probable today than it would have been 20 or 30 years ago,” said Emanuel, who also calculated the likelihood of a storm flooding New York City, months before 2012’s Superstorm Sandy.

But it’s not just climate change, Emanuel said: “We do know for sure that El Nino tends to enhance” hurricane activity in that region.

And when storms like Hilary hit, the warmer air also holds more moisture and that means more rain falling down, Corbosiero, Swain and Emanuel said. Studies show that worldwide tropical cyclones are getting rainier.

For the next two to three weeks, expect the eastern Pacific hurricane basin to be active – peak season is near the end of the month – Corbosiero said. Other weather and climate conditions may provide the region a break in early to mid-September only to get busier again at the end of next month, she said.

source https://time.com/6307130/what-caused-tropical-storm-hilarys-record-breaking-rainfall/

Biden Addresses Victims in Maui as Search for Hundreds of Missing Drags On

After arriving in Maui via Air Force One on Monday, President Joe Biden boarded a helicopter, taking in from the air the miles of charred remains left behind by the deadliest American fire in a century.

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Biden was traveling to the historic coastal town of Lahaina, which experienced some of the worst damage. Authorities have confirmed at least 114 people died in Maui wildfires, and there are still 850 names on the list of missing persons.  

Visiting a disaster zone is a presidential ritual that’s both expected and comes with considerable political risk. When President Trump stopped in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria he was slammed for being insensitive when he tossed rolls of paper towels into a crowd. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, President George W. Bush was photographed looking out the window of Air Force One while flying over New Orleans and criticized for not seeing the destruction up close.

Biden has gained a reputation for his empathetic responses to natural disasters, mass shootings and other moments of tragedy. But he has been criticized for not speaking sooner about the devastating fire and not traveling to see the scene earlier. The White House has said that President Biden put off his arrival in Hawaii so he wouldn’t disrupt the ongoing search and recovery operations.

“I wish I had a nickel for every time a president of both parties has been criticized for not rushing to a disaster scene fast enough,” says Larry Sabato, a prominent political analyst and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “The other complaint is, ‘Can you believe this guy froze up our roads and monopolized our police and fire trucks when they have important work to do?’”

“So you can’t win,” Sabato says. “You’re either there too early or too late. You either don’t say enough or you say too much.”

After arriving on Lahaina’s Front Street on Monday, Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were briefed by federal and local officials on the recovery efforts. They also met with community members who survived the fires, which burned hot enough to melt cars stuck in traffic waiting to evacuate the town.

Biden stepped up to a podium not far from the charred-but-still-living limbs of the 150-year-old banyan tree that had shaded the central square of the town before the fires. “The tree survived for a reason,” Biden said. “I believe it is a powerful—a very powerful symbol of what we can and will do to get through this crisis.

“Today it’s burned,” he added, “but it’s still standing.”

The initial federal response to the devastation in Maui drew criticism, as reports rolled in of victims getting more aid from private volunteers. There are now more than 1,000 federal personnel on the ground in Maui to help in the response effort, according to a White House description of the response.

On Monday, Biden named a veteran leader from within the Federal Emergency Management Administration, Robert Fenton, to lead the federal response to the deadly wildfires in Maui. Along with FEMA, the Coast Guard, the Navy, the Army, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Small Business Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency are also helping with Hawaii’s recovery.

Much of the criticism in recent days has been at the local government response to the wildfires. Hawaii Governor Josh Green has ordered an official review amid criticism that government officials didn’t do enough to save lives. Questions raised include why sirens weren’t activated to warn residents about the flames.

Read more: Why Recovery Efforts in Maui Are ‘Painstakingly Slow’

Biden this month asked Congress for an additional $12 billion in disaster relief funds given the scope of disasters the country has faced so far this year. That figure is expected to grow in the aftermath of the Maui fires.

Sabato predicts Biden will still draw some criticism for his visit, as some will view it as “not enough.”

“Because a president can’t get off Air Force One, snap his fingers and solve these terrible problems,” Sabato says. “He can’t bring dead people back to life.”

Biden took time during his speech to address widespread concerns that wealthy real estate developers and speculators would dictate how towns like Lahaina rebuild. The federal government would prioritize what Maui residents want to happen in their recovery. “We’re going to rebuild the way the people of Maui want to build, not the way other people want to build,” Biden said.

As he spoke, Biden revisited the deaths of his first wife Neilia and daughter, Naomi, who were killed in a car crash in 1972. He recalled that as he headed to the hospital, he wasn’t sure what happened to his two sons, Hunter and Beau, who were also in the crash. Both survived. Many people on Maui right now don’t know what happened to their loved ones, or are grappling with news of the deaths of close friends and family. “I know the feeling as many of the people in this town, in this community, that hollow feeling in your chest like you’re being sucked into a black hole, wondering will I ever get by this?” Biden said.

source https://time.com/6307022/biden-maui-wildfires-missing-dead-federal-response/

China Intensifies Espionage Crackdown Targeting Alleged Spies for the CIA

China is intensifying a crackdown on alleged spies for the U.S., saying it found another case of an individual informing the Central Intelligence Agency, adding to a series of espionage accusations between the two nations.

The Chinese Ministry of State Security said Monday it is investigating a 39-year-old ministry official identified by his surname Hao for providing information to the CIA in exchange for money. This follows another case earlier this month involving an employee of a military industrial group.

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The latest claims come weeks after CIA director William Burns said his agency has made progress in rebuilding its network in China following setbacks in the country. Tensions between China and the U.S. have risen after a series of incidents in recent months, including an alleged spy balloon and military encounters in the South China Sea.

Read More: Amid Rising Joblessness, China Stops Publishing Its Youth Unemployment Rate

China’s MSS provided rare details of how the people came to inform the CIA. The ministry said Hao was approached by a U.S. embassy staff known as Ted during his study in Japan. Ted introduced Hao to his colleague Li Jun, who worked for the CIA’s Tokyo office. Li asked Hao to work in a “core” unit upon his return to China, the ministry said in a statement.

Hao allegedly signed an espionage agreement with the U.S. and received training. When he returned to China, he worked for a Chinese ministry — the statement didn’t specify which one — and met with CIA personnel several times, providing intelligence and receiving money in return, the ministry said.

The other case involved a suspect with the surname Zeng, who developed a close relationship with Seth, an official of the U.S. embassy in Italy, according to MSS. Seth, who turned out to be working for the CIA in Rome, asked Zeng to provide sensitive military information and he agreed. Zeng provided a large amount of “core information” and received payment, MSS said.

China’s powerful spy agency is usually secretive about its work but has taken a more public profile recently. Beijing has ratcheted up efforts to crack down on spying and adopted a new counter-espionage law that came into effect last month. That legislation expands the list of activities that could be considered spying, intensifying the risks for foreign firms.

source https://time.com/6306709/china-spy-crackdown-cia/

Guatemalans Overwhelmingly Vote for Change With Progressive Candidate Bernardo Arévalo

GUATEMALA CITY — Outsider Bernardo Arévalo appeared to be the “virtual winner” of Sunday’s election to be Guatemala’s next president after voters angry at widespread corruption and leaders’ failure to tackle it made a decisive choice for change.

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A potential victory by the progressive candidate is almost certainly distressing politicians who have been enjoying impunity for corruption, along with some members of the monied elite and their allies in organized crime.

With more than 99% of the votes counted, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal reported that the son of former president Juan José Arévalo, representing the Seed Movement, led former first lady Sandra Torres by 58% to 37%.

Supreme Electoral Tribunal Magistrate Blanca Alfaro called Arévalo the “virtual winner” and called for an immediate national dialogue to begin to reconcile the country’s deep political divides.

“We are going to make a government that is for all Guatemalans, a government that takes care of all people, despite differences,” Arévalo said. “All of us share a love for Guatemala. That’s what we have been working for and we will continue tirelessly to build a new spring.”

Arévalo said he had received calls from outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador congratulating him.

He said Giammattei invited him to begin an orderly transition the day after the results are certified.

Some of Arévalo’s supporters gathered at a plaza downtown in the capital waving flags and blowing horns.

Jhamy Lucas, 27, cried tears of joy in the Obelisk plaza. “I am so happy because I am going to be able to live in my country,” she said. “I’m not going to have to migrate to survive.”

Arévalo posted a brief message to X, saying “Long live Guatemala!”

Read More: Guatemala Rethinks the Economics of Migration

The results are unlikely to be the last word: It took more than two weeks for the results of the first round of voting in June to be certified. Losing parties got the courts to intervene and order a review of precinct vote tallies.

When electoral authorities were finally ready to certify, the Attorney General’s Office announced an investigation into signatures that the Seed Movement had gathered to register years earlier as a party. That investigation continues, and prosecutors appear to be on a path to stripping Arévalo of his party.

Arévalo made it into the runoff with only about 654,000 votes or 11% of the total in the first round in June. On Sunday, he received more than 2.4 million.

The two candidates offered starkly different paths forward. Torres became an ally of the outgoing, deeply unpopular Giammattei in her third bid for the presidency. Arévalo, with the progressive Seed Movement, rode a wave of popular resentment toward politics to his surprise spot in the runoff.

But moves to drag the electoral process into the courts after the first round of voting in June led many Guatemalans to wonder what was to come between Sunday’s results and the transfer of power Jan. 14.

Central America’s most populous country and the region’s largest economy continues to struggle with poverty and violence that have driven hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans to migrate to the U.S.

Voting appeared to have been peaceful. The Attorney General’s Office, which sought unsuccessfully to suspend Arévalo’s party before the vote, announced several arrests for interference with the process, but they appeared to be minor.

Political analyst Renzo Rosal noted the heavier than usual presence of uniformed agents from the Attorney General’s Office at voting centers across the country “could be taken as a form of intimidation.” The Associated Press saw such agents at several voting centers.

Antonio González voted late Sunday, shortly before polls closed, at a teachers’ school in the capital.

The 42-year-old tractor-trailer driver said he hoped Guatemala’s powerful would respect the will of the voters. He wants someone to tackle corruption and improve education and the economy. Without those things, Guatemalans will continue to migrate to the U.S. like two of his co-workers recently had.

Thinking of the future of his children, he said, “We hope that they improve the economy, that there’s work.”

Poll workers at each voting table immediately began tallying ballots. One person would unfold each ballot, show it to the party observers at the table and announce which party received the vote.

Earlier Sunday, Roxana Abigail González voted for Arévalo, hoping that he would make a difference for her future. “I think he could be a good president,” she said.

The 25-year-old student lives in Villa Nueva, a gritty hillside suburb above the capital. Thieves and gangs that extort businesses and kill those who don’t pay roam its cratered streets. González said she has had the possessions she carried stolen multiple times, making her nervous to venture out alone.

Among her hopes for Guatemala’s next government are more security, jobs for the poor families whose children she sees begging in the streets and more hospitals.

González wants to continue on to college and study business administration. She loves to cook and dreams of having her own restaurant one day, but the threat of extortion is so great that she’s unsure if it’s possible. “People can’t keep a business,” she said.

At the school where she voted, the election coordinator estimated that by late morning the flow of voters was only about half of what they had for the first round of voting in June. Turnout was considerably lower at about 45% compared to 60% in June, according to electoral authorities.

The first round of voting on June 25 went relatively smoothly until Arévalo landed in the runoff. The fact that the preliminary results were dragged into Guatemala’s co-opted justice system has raised anxiety among many Guatemalans that voters will not have the final word Sunday.

Torres, in her closing campaign event Friday, suggested she would not accept a result that didn’t go her way. “We’re going to defend vote by vote because today democracy is at risk (and) because they want to steal the elections,” she said.

Torres has painted her opponent as a radical leftist who threatens Guatemalans’ conservative values on issues including sexual identity and abortion.

“We’re not going to let them influence our children with strange and foreign ideologies,” she said Friday.

Having run largely populist campaigns, capitalizing on her oversight of the government’s social programs during the presidency of her then-husband Álvaro Colom, Torres drifted sharply rightward this time, abandoning the social democratic history of her National Unity of Hope party and launching unsubstantiated attacks at Arévalo that she herself suffered during earlier failed campaigns.

Delmi Espino, a 46-year-old teacher, came to vote in Guatemala City with her mother. “It’s incredible how we managed to get to this point after everything that has happened in the electoral process,” she said. “How’s it possible that now there’s an investigation of one of the two parties?”

“It doesn’t matter that we need security, education or health, if you don’t fight corruption,” she said. “We want a president who cares about the country.”

source https://time.com/6306700/bernardo-arevalo-guatemala-elections-president/