Guatemalan first lady to divorce, marry ‘the people’

GUATEMALA CITY–First Lady Sandra Torres de Colom said Thursday that she will divorce President Alvaro Colom and marry “the people” to circumvent legal roadblocks preventing her from running for president of Guatemala.

“The love for Guatemala is the reason why the president and I put the interests of the country ahead of our own interests,” said Torres.

Torres shed tears as she described the “great and solid love” she felt for her husband, but said that her love for the people was “limitless.”

According to the Guatemala’s constitution, close blood relatives of the president and those of “second level of affinity” are banned from running.

Torres has been married to Colom for eight years. The divorce was filed on March 11, just days after Torres announced she was running for president in the September election.

Critics say the move mocks the constitution, but the couple dismiss the critics as politicians and business interests opposed to the government’s social reforms.

“I represent the most forgotten and humble sectors of Guatemala,” she said.

“I’ve been criticized for what I do and what I don’t do, and I’ve been criticized because I’m divorcing the president, but I’m marrying the people” of Guatemala, she told reporters.

Colom earlier said that the divorce decision was “difficult” but that he took it “to avoid pressure on the judicial system.”

Once the divorce was complete he and Torres would live in separate homes, he said.

Retired general Otto Perez of the Patriot Party, the main opposition group, currently has a commanding lead in the race, according to a February poll in the daily El Periodico. Torres was second.

Torres is supported by an alliance of the governing National Unity of Hope (UNE) party and the right-wing Grand National Alliance (GANA).