Colom Caballeros, Álvaro

Colom Caballeros, Álvaro, 1951–, Guatemalan political leader, president of Guatemala (2008–), b. Guatemala City. An industrial engineer, he became a textile entrepreneur. Entering politics in the 1990s, he was a deputy economy minister and later became director of the National Peace Fund (Fonapaz), an organization that helped resettle refugees following the country's 36-year (1960–96) civil war. A self-described moderate socialist, Colom ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1999 and 2003, but running on a antipoverty and anticorruption platform he won the office in 2007.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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