Thelma Cabrera

Cabrera has been an active member of Peasant Development Committee (Spanish: Comité de Desarrollo Campesino; CODECA), a grassroots human rights organization working to improve the situation of the rural poor of Guatemala. Cabrera was selected to represent CODECA's newly formed political party, Movement for the Liberation of Peoples (Spanish: Movimiento para la Liberación de los Pueblos; MLP), to run in the 2019 Guatemalan general election on June 16, 2019. Both the MLP and CODECA have dealt with severe backlash regarding their mission to empower and represent indigenous communities. Activists and politicians like Cabrera have received countless death threats throughout their respective campaigns. In 2018, following the formation of the MLP, a member of CODECA's national leadership, Luis Arturo Marroquín was murdered. Seven other members of CODECA and Campesino organizations were murdered between May and June of 2018 leading up to the election.

On June 15, 2019, Cabrera was polling fifth in a race with 20 candidates. With half of the ballots counted, Cabrera was coming in as fourth with 10.3% of the vote. By the time the majority of the ballots were counted, only the top two candidates, Sandra Torres with 26% of the votes and Alejandro Giammattei with 15% of the votes, are left to compete in a runoff election in August 2019, leaving Cabrera out of the race. The MLP reported several irregularities regarding ballots during the race, however, their accusations were rejected and a ballot recount was conducted with no avail.

Cabrera’s fourth-place finish among the nineteen candidates was the highest finish of any indigenous presidential candidate in Guatemalan history. Her party, the MLP, also elected one representative to congress while seven other representatives were elected from majority indigenous parties. Despite the population being 60% indigenous, Cabrera was only the second indigenous woman to run for president since Rigoberta Menchu and if elected, she would’ve been the first ever president that was not a man of Spanish descent. Her campaign slogan “Yo Elijo Dignidad” or “I Choose Dignity” targeted Guatemala’s long history of corrupt elections and mistreatment of indigenous peoples. All three of the candidates who finished above Cabrera were involved in their own sets of controversies and allegations. Sandra Torres (finished 2nd) was accused of money laundering and illicit campaign funding, while Alejandro Giammattei faced backlash for his role in the extra judicial executions of 7 prisoners in 2006. Roberto Arzú who finished third amongst the candidates, also faced sanctions to pay off multimillion dollar debts owed to his political strategist. Cabrera planned to address these issues by lowering pay for government officials to prevent candidates from participating in politics for the purpose of gaining wealth or bolstering their business connections.

Thelma Cabrera (born September 21,1970) is an indigenous (Maya Mam) human rights defender and politician. Cabrera ran for president of Guatemala in 2019 as part of the political party, Movement for the Liberation of Peoples. She finished fourth in the 2019 election garnering 10.3% of the popular vote.