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GUATEMALA CITY — Retired Gen. Otto Perez Molina was sworn in as president of Guatemala on Saturday, calling on the United States and Mexico to help him fight a wave of drug trafficking and violence that has overwhelmed the Central American country.
Perez won over voters by pledging to crush criminality with an “iron fist.” Mexican drug cartels have seized large swatches of territory in Guatemala, which has one of the world’s highest homicide rates.
Perez, 61, is the first military officer elected as Guatemalan president since the end of a military government 25 years ago. He served in that administration as director of intelligence.
