This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batchel.

The first round of the Guatemala presidential election, June 25th, and a surprise result,

not Sandra Torres, who was leading in the polling for the second round, August 20th. But

the number two is the surprise, and that has caused a great deal of attention from the

State Department and from the people of Guatemala, a poor country, part of the Northern

Triangle, part of the story of mass migration to the American border. We're told these

last years a great deal of controversy upon us. Mary, a very good evening to you. Thank

you for this Guatemala City, capital of Guatemala, is now in the process of reviewing the first

round. Why so? And what is the State Department's opinion? Good evening to you.

Good evening, John. Well, as you mentioned, the second round, sorry, the second place

finisher in the first round is a guy called Bernardo Arevalo, and he is a member of the

Simea Party, Simea means seed in English. And his second place finish was quite a shock

to the country. He had been polling way down in the numbers and no one expected him to

come in in second. So, nine of the political parties appealed to the constitutional court

for a review of the tally sheets that come into Guatemala, and are used to tabulate

the results. And I wrote my column on Monday because the Biden administration objected

to that review. And that review is perfectly legal. The parties have the right to any

citizen has the right to appeal to the constitutional court for grievances. And the review of the tally

sheets wasn't going to change anything in terms of the electoral calendar. The court gave

the electoral tribunal five days to complete the task. And I think it was healthy. It allowed

all the party members to be each table had representatives from the different parties around

the table to review the tally sheets. And nothing changed, which is fine. But I think it was a good

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