In Guatemala, a retired military general has taken an early lead in Guatemala’s national election. If elected, Gen. Otto Pérez Molina would become the first former military official to win the presidency since the end of the military dictatorships in 1986. Human rights groups have accused Pérez of being directly involved in the systematic use of torture and acts of genocide in the 1980s. Pérez has run largely on a platform of using an iron fist to crack down on drug cartels.

Otto Pérez, Guatemalan presidential candidate: “This is a rite that I accept, that I am going to fight with character and with a firm hand in front of the institutions to bring peace and security and defend the lives of all Guatemalans so we can live with security as we deserve.”

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Mayan activist Rigoberta Menchú is one of nine other candidates running for president.

Rigoberta Menchú: “Give us an equal chance, which we have not had in this election, because there are candidates who have mortgaged this country with organized crime, who have mortgaged this country with dirty money that we have seen in their multi-million (quetzals) campaigns, and this is not free for Guatemala. And so, with great energy, from here on, we can’t allow this. We can’t allow (to be) governed by the past or governed by criminal organizations or a corrupt government, because this is basically what we are facing.”