Sandra Torres

She ran again in the 2019 Presidential election, and led in some polls, though she had faced a legal challenge by the Constitutional Court over potential campaign finance violations. during the last election, which she denied.

She was defeated in the second round of the 2019 Presidential election by Alejandro Giammattei.

With no restrictions from the Constitution she was able to run in the Presidential election of 2015 as a candidate for the same political party that her ex-husband was elected, the social-democratic National Unity of Hope party (UNE). This time she finished second in the first round of the election on 6 September, narrowly beating the third-placed Manuel Baldizón, and qualifying for the runoff against first-placed Jimmy Morales. She lost the election in the second round.

She has spent most of her professional lifetime promoting politics, plans, programs, projects and laws concerning social development, specially of women, children and people with special needs. Within the legal initiatives that she has promoted from inside her political party – the National Unity of Hope (UNE) – (of which her former husband is the Leader and in which she is also a director) are:

Sandra Julieta Torres Casanova (locally ['sandɾa xu'lieta 'tores kasa'noba] ) is a Guatemalan politician who was First Lady of Guatemala from 2008 to 2011 and unsuccessful candidate for president in 2015 and 2019.

During the 2008 presidential term of her husband Álvaro Colom, she had a proactive role in many social programs, creating a platform for the distribution of government aid to the poor. She became quite popular among the poor and hence she decided to run for president in the 2011 Guatemalan general election. However, she was disqualified from being a candidate since the Constitution of Guatemala, in subsection c of article 186, prohibits relatives of the President and the Vice President on duty, to run as candidates. Even though she divorced her husband President Álvaro Colom, the move was seen as an attempt to circumvent the electoral law.

Sandra Julieta Torres Casanova was born on the 5th of October 1955, in the municipality of Melchor de Mencos, in the department of Petén. She is the daughter of Enrique Torres and Teresa Casanova. She has a degree in Communication Sciences from the University San Carlos de Guatemala. She also has a master's degree in Public Politics from the University of Rafael Landívar de Guatemala.