This Monday, Guatemala marks a consecutive week of strikes, protests and blockades on its main roads as pressure measures to demand the resignation of Consuelo Porras Argueta, the attorney general who, according to the elected president, Bernardo Arévalo de León, is leading a coup attack to prevent his inauguration, set for January. The civil society response began on Monday, October 2, with sit-ins by indigenous peoples in their territories and at the headquarters of the Public Ministry (MP), in Guatemala City. As the days passed, groups of university students, professionals, social organizations, merchants and neighborhood committees were activated throughout the country in defense of democracy and to demand respect for the popular will expressed at the polls. By Friday night, the pickets had multiplied and the country was paralyzed. Porras rules out presenting her resignation and the Public Ministry assures that she “continues working without inconvenience.”
Citizens have mobilized in “defense of democracy” to express their rejection against the attempts to nullify the electoral victory of the presidential duo of the Semilla Movement. The progressive party faces risks of cancellation, which borders on unconstitutional, according to several jurists. Both Arévalo and the leaders of the organization fear that the Prosecutor’s Office will redouble its persecution.
Citizen indignation escalated a week ago after the seizure of the minutes of the elections, held in August, in a search that lasted about 20 hours and ended in a struggle between prosecutors and magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. They opposed the seizure of the ballots with the results since, by law, they are responsible for safeguarding the original documents.
Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, who directs cases against exiled journalists and former justice operators, justified the seizure of electoral materials to advance a new investigation. Arévalo described the operation as an escalation of “legal violence” that seeks “the annulment of the electoral result and the destruction of the democratic regime.”
Both Arévalo and the indigenous authorities have invoked the application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter in the face of an alteration of the constitutional order, so that the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) analyzes the situation and adopts necessary decisions to promote the normalization of the institutionality. . For now, the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, accepted President Alejandro Giammattei’s call to mediate a dialogue between the social sectors leading the protests and the Government.
Call for attention from the Constitutional Court
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In the midst of a wave of protests, on Friday night the Constitutional Court admitted the complaint of a group of ten citizens who warned about the threat of a breakdown of democracy to prevent the inauguration of Bernardo Arévalo on January 14. The complaint includes the suspension of the Semilla Movement at the hands of a criminal judge and the boycott of the elections. These events threaten a democratic breakdown, explained lawyer Edgar Ortiz.
The jurist, who is part of that group of citizens, highlighted the importance of the Constitutional Court “for the first time recognizing a democratic threat; It is true, it is not the end point of the crisis, but guidelines are already set for the bodies involved” to maintain the institutionality, he explained to ELPAÍS. “Reading between the lines, with its resolution the Court tells the Public Ministry to adhere to the law, and the Judiciary to adjust to the proportionality of the actions. That is, it is saying that there are actions outside reasonable frameworks,” Ortiz continues.
“The court sends a political message and sets guidelines. This is a longer game but the amparo guidelines will be used later to evaluate whether they were complied with or not,” concludes the lawyer. In its resolution, the Court privileges the defense of the democratic order and the alternation of power, which guarantees the renewal of rulers, deputies and mayors on the dates provided for by the Constitution.
However, for other jurists the Court’s resolution is ambiguous, since it does not ensure Arévalo’s takeover. “The demonstration and resistance continue to be legitimate and necessary for these officials to leave,” says lawyer Oswaldo Samayoa, who expresses his concern that the dialogue promoted by the Secretary General of the OAS does not fall into “a perverse game of manipulation.”
On Friday, for his part, Arévalo thanked the citizen movements for rejecting “the attempts of a corrupt Public Ministry to violate the popular will.”
The breakdown of the plan
With a proposal of frontal rejection of corruption and redirection of a country on the brink of authoritarianism, Arévalo won the presidential election with the support of 2.4 million citizens, 58% of the valid votes cast on August 20. The Semilla Movement candidates competed in a context of judicialization and blocking of candidates that sought to favor the party of President Alejandro Giammattei and his allies.
“With our vote we ruined their plan and that is why they want to steal the elections,” said Rolando Canto, one of the hundreds of protesters who arrived at the headquarters of the Public Ministry on Friday night. In the streets, the demand continues for the resignation of prosecutor Consuelo Porras, members of her team, such as Rafael Curruchiche and Judge Fredy Orellana, who no longer enjoys the public’s trust. The mobilizations are the only resource of the population that does not find answers or defense in the justice system, said Luis Pacheco, president of the 48 Cantons of Totonicapán, one of the indigenous organizations leading the protest. “We have already presented memorials to request the resignation of officials who do not respect the popular will, other lawyers present protections but there is no real solution to the crisis,” he said at the end of the fifth day of protest in front of the Public Ministry.
Indigenous peoples have also asked President Alejandro Giammattei to remove Attorney General Consuelo Porras. “Every day more people have joined and we realize that the concern is common; “I am satisfied, happy and also tired,” Pacheco tells ELPAÍS. The courage and organizational capacity of the indigenous peoples has inspired citizens, who express recognition on social networks and replicate their actions, but it is beginning to be a difficult weight to handle. “We ask for precautionary measures before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to protect ourselves because there may be criminalization of indigenous leaders, but the actions are a collective responsibility,” explains the community leader.
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