The Comedian President
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 October 2015
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Guatemalans, united by anger against violence and a political system riddled with corruption, have chosen a comedian to be their next president. Jimmy Morales is riding on a wave of excitement - but his people want change. And they want it fast. There's another election this coming weekend -- it's in Turkey and the voting takes place amidst fears that the country could find itself sucked into the vortex of the seemingly endless war in neighbouring Syria. Russia's involvement in the conflict in Syria has its opponents outside the country but within Russia, few oppose President Putin's foreign policy. In this programme we meet a Russian war veteran who's defying public abuse and saying: those who launched this military operation don't know how dangerous it is, or how it will end. We travel to Patagonia in the south of Argentina to see how a Welsh community there is faring in the shadow of the snow-capped Andes. And the tastebuds are tingling in the American state of Oregon where a rather special kind of beer, only available at this time of year, is nearly ready!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading the latest edition of BBC radios from our own correspondent, |
| 0:05.7 | the best in news and current affairs storytelling. |
| 0:08.8 | It's introduced by Kate Adi. |
| 0:10.9 | Hello, today a comedian is elected president in Guatemala, one of the most violent nations on earth, but can |
| 0:17.9 | humor help him get a serious message across? |
| 0:21.6 | They're voting in Turkey this weekend in the shadow of the seemingly |
| 0:24.7 | endless war in neighbouring Syria. We find Welshness thriving in Argentina 150 years |
| 0:31.8 | after the first settlers arrived from Wales. |
| 0:35.0 | And in the American state of Oregon, thirsty crowds are gathering |
| 0:39.0 | 240 special barrels of beer and nearly ready for sampling. |
| 0:44.0 | Now if you thought British politics had thrown up some surprises recently |
| 0:48.0 | then consider events in Guatemala, where over the past year they've put one former president on trial for genocide, |
| 0:55.8 | thrown a sitting one out in a fraud scandal, and then elected a comedian, a real one to the |
| 1:01.7 | post. This is one of the world's most violent places with one of the |
| 1:05.7 | world's highest murder rates. Many of its political class were presumed to be in |
| 1:10.4 | league with violent drug cartels or paramilitary death squads and paranoia |
| 1:15.3 | filtered through every level of society and government. Katie Watson says |
| 1:20.0 | that the man who ended up winning nearly three quarters of the vote on Sunday may be a |
| 1:24.6 | joker but he needs to be serious about change. |
| 1:29.2 | Guatemala doesn't usually steal the headlines. |
| 1:31.1 | With Mexico as a neighbor, the small Central American country usually gets a clear the voice and people are listening. |
| 1:43.2 | It all started back in April. |
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