Ernesto Jafeth Cabrera Franco (

Guatemala City Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...

, 28 November 1948) is a

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

n politician who served as

Vice President of Guatemala Vice president of Guatemala () is a political position in Guatemala which is since 1966 elected concurrently with the position of President of Guatemala. The current vice president is Karin Herrera. The vice president needs to be a Guatemalan ...

from 2016 to 2020 under the government of Jimmy Morales.

Early life and career

Cabrera studied at the

Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala The Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC, ''University of San Carlos of Guatemala'') is the largest and oldest university of Guatemala; it is also the fourth founded in the Americas. Established in the Kingdom of Guatemala during the Spa ...

, where he obtained a degree in medicine and surgery. He was Rector of the University between 1994 and 1998.

Political career

Cabrera's political career started in 1999 when he was one of the founders of the

National Unity of Hope The National Unity of Hope (, UNE) is a populist political party in Guatemala. It was founded in 2002 and defined itself as a social-democratic and Christian socialism, social-Christian party, but since transformed and is now described as a right- ...

with

Álvaro Colom Álvaro Colom Caballeros (; 15 June 1951 – 23 January 2023) was a Guatemalan engineer, businessman, and politician who served as the 47th president of Guatemala from 2008 to 2012, as well as the General-Secretary of the political party, Natio ...

. Cabrera left the party shortly afterward. In 2004, he became Secretary for Agricultural Affairs. In May 2015, Caberera was announced as the National Convergence Front candidate for the office of Vice President for the

2015 elections Africa * 2015 Beninese parliamentary election 26 April 2015 * 2015 Burkinabé general election 29 November 2015 * 2015 Burundian legislative election 29 June 2015 * 2015 Burundian presidential election 21 July 2015 * 2015-16 Central African gene ...

. He was attached to Jimmy Morales as a presidential candidate. In September 2015, Cabrera announced that he believed that one of the causes of Guatemala's problems was to be found in the

Spanish colonization of the Americas The Spanish colonization of the Americas began in 1493 on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) after the initial 1492 voyage of Genoa, Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus under license from Queen Isabella ...

, stating that if Guatemala had been taken over by another country the problems would not have been so grave. On 6 November 2015, Cabrera was officially declared as Vice President-elect by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Guatemala.

Personal life

His son, Jafeth Ernesto Cabrera Cortéz, was elected to the Congress of Guatemala for the National Convergence Front in the 2015 parliamentary elections. He could, however, not take up his seat due to a law prohibiting relatives of the President and Vice-President from becoming deputies.

References

1948 births Living people Vice presidents of Guatemala 20th-century Guatemalan judges Heads of universities and colleges Politicians from Guatemala City Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala alumni Academic staff of Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala {{Guatemala-politician-stub