Guatemala's Menchu closes struggling poll campaign

GUATEMALA CITY, Aug 27 (Reuters) Trailing in the polls and short on funds, Nobel peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu closed her national campaign for Guatemala's September 9 presidential election.

Menchu hopes to become Latin America's first indigenous woman president, but a survey published in the Prensa Libre newspaper last week showed less than 3 per cent of respondents would vote for her.

''The only thing we were lacking was money and time,'' said congresswoman Nineth Montenegro, yesterday who heads the left-leaning Together for Guatemala party backing Menchu's presidential bid, at a rally in the capital's central plaza.

Menchu remains in the race but was forced to end campaigning earlier than the other main candidates due to her funding shortage.

Most Guatemalans are ethnic Mayans but Menchu -- a defender of Mayan victims of the brutal 1960-1996 civil war -- has been unable to close the gap on front-runners Alvaro Colom, a left-leaning engineer, and right-wing former General Otto Perez Molina. The pair are headed for a runoff vote in November.

Recognized internationally for her indigenous rights work, Menchu was backed in her campaign by Bolivia's indigenous President Evo Morales, but analysts say she lacks a political base like that which Morales built during his years as a labor leader.

Menchu, who will keep campaigning at the local level, told yesterday's rally that elections in Latin America were like marketing campaigns where politicians with deep pockets could muster votes in exchange for things like fences or fertilizer.

Perez Molina, ranked second in polls, has spent most on advertising in a crowded field of over a dozen candidates, buying billboards and radio spots to advertise his message of a ''strong hand'' against crime.

REUTERS AK BST0455