Guatemala: Bernardo Arévalo asks justice to dismiss prosecutor for alleged ‘coup’

The elected president of Guatemala, the social democrat Bernardo Arévalo, This Monday he presented to court a request for the dismissal of the attorney general, Consuelo Porraswhom accused of orchestrating a “coup d’état” to prevent him from assuming power in January.

“We are resorting to the law to defend the rights that assist us,” said Arévalo after being accompanied by hundreds of followers.who raised Guatemalan flags, to the headquarters of the Supreme Court, where he filed an appeal for protection requesting the departure of Porras and two other judicial officials.

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In addition, he requested “that the actions of the Seventh Court (of the questioned Judge Fredy Orellana) in collusion with the prosecutors” against his party, Semilla, be annulled.

“We are presenting the amparo with all the arguments that show the sequence of acts that violate the Constitution that they have committed and that constitute a violation of the established constitutional order,” declared the 64-year-old sociologist and congressman, son of President Juan José Arévalo (1945). -1951), who left his mark on the country.

In his appeal, the elected president He also demanded the departure of prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, who is leading controversial investigations against his political movement.

In the same way, requested the removal of Judge Orellana, who has ordered raids on the headquarters of Semilla and the Supreme Electoral Tribunalwhich has clouded the political atmosphere in the country.

Porras, Curruchiche and Orellana were included in a US list of “corrupt and undemocratic” figures Central Americans.

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“We have decided to present an amparo that demands that constitutional order be restored and that calls for the dismissal of the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, the Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche and Judge Fredy Orellana,” said Arévalo, who on September 1 denounced that these maneuvers are part of a “coup d’état” plan to prevent him from taking office.

In a march through the streets of the capital, Indigenous people with colorful clothing applied the xik’ay or ancestral Mayan punishment with symbolic whippings to the denounced officials and also to the outgoing presidentthe right-wing Alejandro Giammattei, who is accused of participating in the boycott against Arévalo.

“We are here to say no to corruption and impunity,” indigenous activist Rigoberta Menchú, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1992, said at the march.

More protests emerge

Hours before the order is submitted, Thousands of indigenous people, students and other activists demonstrated in several cities across the country to demand Porras’ resignation. and other judicial officials.

In the capital, hundreds of indigenous people from the department of Totonicapán and other western municipalities, Carrying whistles and plastic trumpets, they walked through several streets to demand the departure of the attorney general and other officials.

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“If they do not resign (…), we will take other actions,” Mayan leader María Elías told AFP. For this Tuesday, Members of the Peasant Development Committee announced that they will cut some 20 roads in rejection of the actions of the questioned officials.

With his promise to fight head-on against corruption, one of the country’s evils, Arévalo obtained a large victory in the August 20 runoff, but his rise to power awakens fears among powerful political and business sectors.

Last week, Curruchiche led a raid, with dozens of police officers, at an electoral center where prosecutors opened boxes containing votes from the first round of elections on June 25.

According to the prosecutor, The operation was born from a citizen’s complaint, but the action was rejected by the international community, which believes that it is only a pretext. The United States called it “an attack on the democratic process.”

Almagro attacks the prosecutor’s office

In Washington, the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, He stated this Monday that the Guatemalan prosecutor’s office cannot be allowed to break “the institutions and the Constitution” in the Central American country.where the process of transfer of power is “under threat.”

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One of those risks is the prosecutor’s office, Almagro said during a meeting of the Permanent Council, the executive body of the OAS.

The Prosecutor’s Office rejected the accusation of orchestrating a “coup d’état”, in a message sent to AFP. “Any accusation that seeks to involve the Public Ministry with the result of the electoral event is categorically rejected,” the entity indicated.

AFP