Editor’s Note: This interview was originally published in Spanish in Plaza Pública.
Democrat Norma Torres, who has represented parts of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties in California’s 35th Congressional District since 2015, is running for a fourth term against Mike Cargile, a Republican who lost his party’s support after making racist comments and endorsing the QAnon conspiracy theory that Donald Trump is waging a war against a powerful cabal of Satan-worshipping elites.
In a telephone conversation from Washington, Torres talks about the state of her political career and discusses points of a potential agenda for Central America—Guatemala, in particular—over the next two years.
As the November 3 election approaches, what is the outlook for California’s 35th Congressional District?
The Republican Party nominated an opponent and then withdrew its support because he is a racist who doesn’t believe in science. Even before running, he had gone to great lengths to promote his racist agenda, one that especially targets Latinos.
How do they place someone like that against me? I have worked painstakingly to represent my district, in which Latinos—most of them immigrants, citizens, and workers like me—make up more than 70 percent of the population. But he’s part of a group that seems more like a cult than a political party. They are supporting seven candidates nationally, but it is going to be incredibly difficult for him to challenge a representative like me.
If reelected, will you continue to work with an agenda that focuses on Central America?
Over the next two years, my focus will be on Latin America, especially the Northern Triangle of Central America, which consists of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Should Biden win the election and take office in January, I will work with him as I did in my first term.
First, we should strive to strengthen the rule of law in the Northern Triangle of Central America. This means continuing to fight against corruption and monitoring all U.S. foreign aid to the region.
This is how we’ll make sure that United States money reaches the right hands in order to help the people of Central America, rather than being distributed among Guatemala’s corrupt elite or Honduran drug traffickers.
As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, you proposed a plan to provide financial support to Central American governments on the condition that they fight corruption and impunity. Do you believe that President Alejandro Giammattei is fulfilling his responsibility?
President Giammattei has had many chances to change the direction of the Guatemalan government since the departure of [former president] Jimmy Morales, who ended the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) during the past administration. Unfortunately, Giammattei hasn’t ordered Attorney General Consuelo Porras to prioritize the investigations against members of Congress who are known to be corrupt. Both during Jimmy Morales’ corrupt administration and now under Giammattei, foreign aid has been lining the pockets of corrupt elites.
I hope that a potential new administration in the United States can also lead to change in Guatemala. To have a president like Joe Biden, given all the work that he has done personally in the region and his knowledge of the problems facing Central America, will provide an opportunity to work to improve things—if that is really what the Guatemalan government wants.
What we have now is a significant increase in the number of people fleeing the region toward the United States because they see no future in Guatemala or Honduras. Many die on their journey north and others are now stranded along the Mexican border.
Part of the problem is that the governments of the Northern Triangle have been very weak in the face of the Trump administration, which has forced them to receive citizens arriving ill from other countries as part of Trump’s agreements to send asylum seekers to Central America. I hope we’ll be able to work [more effectively] with the Giammattei administration starting January 2021.
In 2019, you criticized the State Department for presenting a seemingly recycled list of officials implicated in cases of corruption. What should change in the mechanism for drawing up these lists?
We don’t want the list to include officials who have already been indicted in U.S. courts or named in the past. We know that the State Department has carried out many investigations and that they see the real corrupt officials lurking in the shadows. I am once again requesting that they give us an updated list. My office is working with the State Department; they must recognize why it is important that we revoke their visas and punish them under U.S. laws.
In 2019, Speaker Pelosi led a bipartisan congressional delegation on a visit to Guatemala. Of the participants, you seemed most excited. What connection do you have to Guatemala?
I love Guatemala and the Guatemalan people. It pains me to see Guatemalans’ current situation under a government that doesn’t support them and attacks them in many ways. My visit last year was very emotional because it was closely linked to the support of this commission (CICIG) that had come to Guatemala seeking to make real changes, and whose work was nearing completion. It was a heavy blow to the Guatemalan people and it was also very sad that Donald Trump denied the CICIG the political support that it needed.
*Translated by Isaac Norris
