Giammattei, Alejandro (Alejandro Eduardo Giammattei Falla), 1956–, Guatemalan politician. A surgeon by training, he worked for the Guatemalan ministry of public health in the early 1980s and was elections coordinator for the Guatemalan elections of 1985, 1988, 1990, and 1991. He then served as director of urban public transport and manager of the municipal water company for Guatemala City. As director of the Guatemalan prison system (2006–8), he came under fire for a raid on the Pavón prison in which several prisoners were killed. Giammattei ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Guatemala City (1999, 2003) and for president of Guatemala (2007, 2011, 2015) before he was elected Guatemala's president in 2019 as the candidate of the conservative Vamos party.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Guatemalan History: Biographies