Antigua, Guatemala – Guatemalans demand change. They demonstrated it at the polls on August 20 with the election of a representative, Bernardo Arévalo, which marks a break with the government proposals of the last mandates. Faced with what they see as repeated threats against their popular will, many have not hesitated to block roads and shout their discontent from throughout the territory. France 24 was with them on the streets and collected some of their testimonies.
It started more than a week ago with 14 blockages. On Thursday, October 12, there were already more than 130 protest points reported on the roads throughout Guatemala. From the capital to the most distant towns, the clamor of a large part of Guatemalan society rises with the same objective: to demand the resignation of those who, in their opinion, endanger democracy.
And their anger is directed especially against the Public Ministry, the entity from where, according to the protesters, various legal maneuvers are orchestrated to prevent the elected president, Bernardo Arévalo, from taking office in January.
Consuelo Porras and Rafael Curruchiche, repudiated
The heads of the Attorney General, Consuelo Porras, and the head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI), Rafael Curruchiche, are then claimed. Their names have marked the news of Guatemala in recent years, accused of slowing down investigations against corruption and, in general, manipulating the country’s justice system. The questions led the United States to sanction the attorney general in 2021 with the withdrawal of her visa and the prohibition of entering her territory. Curruchiche was also included in 2022 on the United States Engel list, which brings together personalities considered corrupt and undemocratic.
Although the frustration of Guatemalans towards these two individuals had been escalating even before the elections, one event in particular unleashed their indignation. On September 30, the questioned Public Ministry carried out the seizure of the electoral records after a raid on the Supreme Electoral Tribunal that ended with a struggle between prosecutors and magistrates. The latter tried to oppose, since by law they are responsible for safeguarding those ballots.
Bernardo Arévalo, the president-elect, described the operation as an “escalation of legal violence” that seeks “the annulment of the electoral result.” Since the social democrat won the Presidency of the country on August 20, the Public Ministry has sought to discredit his party. , the Semilla Movement, through raids on electoral facilities, an order to suspend the legal status of the political party and investigations into it.
The cry of the streets
Faced with this action, street mobilizations have been the only resource of a population that no longer trusts the justice system to enforce its decision in the August 20 vote. “Guatemala has already voted, it has already decided. We already voted with a short V to have a new president. Now we have to throw out the enemies of Guatemala with a long B,” said protester Salvador Quiacaín Sac in San Pedro la Laguna, according to the media. local Community Press.
More than a show of support for a particular political party, this national strike seems to reflect a desire to defend democracy against its alleged “coup d’état”: “Mrs. Porras and her team have done nothing but mock the people. But this is as far as their arbitrary actions that threaten democracy,” Diego Santiago Seto, an indigenous authority from the Ixil region, told France 24 in a protest in front of the headquarters of the Public Ministry.
The narrative of the coup d’état has been used by Bernardo Arévalo himself since the persecution against his party by the Public Ministry began. He mentioned it again in the session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) held this Tuesday. The elected president then accused the entity led by Consuelo Porras of trying to “reverse the electoral result and alter the constitutional order.”
A strike led by indigenous authorities
This national strike is unprecedented in Guatemala due to its duration, but also because of those who started it. Unlike past protests, the leadership of social mobilization has not fallen to the urban middle classes, but to the rural world. It is the indigenous authorities who called for the protest, in particular the group “Los 48 cantones de Totonicapán.”
“We indigenous people of Guatemala are very organized. And we will not allow a handful of corrupt people to trample on the peace that grandfathers and grandmothers have known how to build for us,” Tz’ules Sunun, Mayan spiritual guide, told France 24 before returning to chant: “The people united will never be defeated” at the blockade point of the city of Antigua.
Throughout the days, groups of university students, professionals, social organizations, merchants and neighborhood committees joined this call. The Episcopal Conference of Guatemala itself demanded in a statement the resignation of Consuelo Porras: “We appeal to the conscience of the president of the Republic […] so that, before that God that the Constitution invokes in its preamble, he leaves behind sectoral or personal interests and takes the decisions and actions that lead the country to political and social normality.”
The demonstrations bring together usually irreconcilable sectors
For their part, the waste collectors asked the president to solve the chaos in the country in 24 hours, and if not, they will not collect waste from the Public Ministry, Government Ministries, Constitutional Court, Court Tower, Congress of the Republic, Ports and Airports.
The vendors of the 105 markets that operate in the department of Guatemala also joined the strike and closed their stores. “It’s been 14 years since we vendors went out on the streets,” said one of the union leaders. Previously, merchants had expressed being against the demonstrations, in fact the main market in Guatemala City provided support to Bernardo Arévalo’s opponent in the presidential elections, Sandra Torres.
And surprisingly, in the midst of this tense and conflictive political environment, the demonstrations have become an ephemeral oasis. With songs, dances, art displays and solidarity.
They changed their tone on Monday, hours after the attorney general assured in her first public intervention since the beginning of the demonstrations that the blockades were a crime. She also claimed that there was looting, something that had not been reported. She finally indicated that her resignation was not contemplated.
The Attorney General and President Giammatei turn a deaf ear to the demands of the street
The same night of that speech, in Guatemala City, a group of hooded men, in addition to breaking windows and setting fire to some buildings, attacked agents of the National Civil Police (PNC), who responded by launching tear gas. Given these events, the deputy director of operations of the PNC, David Boteo, said that infiltrated gang members were the ones causing these disturbances.
Quickly, the Public Ministry reported on its social networks that the Constitutional Court was asked to execute the protection in which they could repress protesters with public force. After nine days of peaceful protests, the Government chose a neighborhood in Guatemala City as the first target for dissolving the blockades. However, the neighbors, riding motorcycles, managed to disperse the PNC agents; turning that colony into a symbol of popular resistance.
The president of Guatemala also took a while to express himself about the national situation. He addressed the nation for the first time after a week of silence, without mentioning the citizen demands to remove Consuelo Porras and Rafael Curruchiche, but rather assuring that “the destabilization of our Guatemala has foreign participation”.
Alejandro Giammattei also emphasized the “serious consequences for the population” of a shortage “of essential products and services”, which “affects everyone’s pockets, especially the most vulnerable.” However, what is denounced in the protests throughout the country are the injustices, the appropriation of resources by the elites and the lack of opportunities that the Guatemalan people have been suffering for decades, without exception from that government.
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