Frequently Asked Questions

Roberto Arzú García-Granados is a Guatemalan entrepreneur and political leader with more than thirty years in the private sector. He has participated in the creation and growth of more than seventy ventures, contributing to over 30,000 direct and indirect jobs. He ran for president of Guatemala in 2019 and today leads the Cabal party.

His father, Álvaro Arzú Irigoyen, was President of Guatemala and signed the 1996 Peace Accords that ended thirty-six years of internal armed conflict; he later served five terms as Mayor of Guatemala City. His maternal great-grandfather, Jorge García Granados, represented Guatemala on the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine in 1947 and became the country's first ambassador to Israel in 1955.

His work spans real estate development, construction, commerce, advertising and services, including high-end oceanfront residential communities, commercial complexes, advertising companies and convenience-store chains, along with years in sports and entertainment management.

He is the principal leader of Cabal, one of the political organizations with the greatest territorial growth in Guatemala. Cabal has presence in more than 100 municipal governments, a significant legislative presence and a consolidated national structure.

He ran for president and received roughly 267,000 votes, establishing himself as a national figure capable of reaching voters frustrated with the traditional political class.

His candidacy was vetoed before the election. Arzú attributes the decision to what he calls the Pact of the Corrupt — a network of officials, judges and private actors that protects those who abuse power — and specifically to then-President Alejandro Giammattei. His position is that voters, not institutions acting on behalf of incumbents, should decide who competes.

Five strategic pillars: security and the rule of law, attracting national and foreign investment, massive formal job creation, modernizing and simplifying the state, and economic openness with real competition. The goal is to turn Guatemala into a regional platform for manufacturing, commerce, services and exports.

He describes the relationship as a brotherhood built on shared interests: secure borders, less illegal migration, defeating drug trafficking and organized crime, free markets and democracy that survives contact with power. He argues the most effective migration policy is one that creates enough formal jobs in Guatemala that leaving stops being the rational choice.

He supports the historic Guatemala–Israel relationship that his great-grandfather helped create in 1947 and 1955, when Guatemala voted for Resolution 181 and later became the first country to establish an embassy in Jerusalem.

The biography, career and legacy pages on this site cover his record in detail, and the complete timeline sets it in chronological order.