For the third consecutive day, hundreds of farmers block the main roads of Guatemala this Wednesday, October 4, in rejection of the Attorney General’s Office, which last Saturday confiscated the electoral records of the first and second round of the presidential elections, which certified the victory of the progressive Bernardo Arévalo. Since the now elected president surprisingly went to the runoff, the country’s authorities have taken action against him and his political party, the Semilla Movement. Arévalo denounced a “coup d’état in progress.”
Guatemala faces a climate of high tension amid complaints against the authorities for alleged attempts to stop the inauguration of president-elect Bernardo Arévalo.
This October 4, hundreds of farmers maintain blockades of at least 14 roads in the country, most located in the departments of Sololá, Quiché, Chimaltenango and Quetzaltenango, in the northwest, to protest against the Attorney General’s Office and demand the resignation of the head. of the entity, Consuelo Porras.
In recent months, Porras, together with Rafael Curruchiche, head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI) of Guatemala, has led various legal actions against Arévalo and his political group, the Semilla Movement.
Since last October 2, indigenous groups and agricultural workers have paralyzed traffic on the main transportation arteries, while accusing the leadership of the Prosecutor’s Office of seeking to carry out “a coup d’état” against the elected president, Bernardo Arévalo de León, who He won the runoff on August 20 with 61% of the votes in his favor, and whose inauguration is scheduled for January 2024.
In the last hours, Congress announced that it was suspending sessions, attributing its decision to the blockades.
As part of the mobilizations, at least 200 indigenous leaders have spent two consecutive nights in front of the headquarters of the Prosecutor’s Office, a sit-in with which they seek to pressure so that their demands are taken into account.
Some deputies justify and support the raids of the Public Ministry (the Prosecutor’s Office) against the electoral power.
Chronology of the actions of the Prosecutor’s Office
Since last June 25, the then candidate for the Presidency surprisingly went to the second round of elections against the former first lady, Sandra Torres, considered the representative of traditional politics, the judge of the Seventh Court Fredy Orellana, at the request of Curruchiche, attempted to suspend the legal personality of the Seed Movement and stop Arévalo’s participation in the Runoff.
Your justification? The alleged affiliation, by the Semilla Movement, of 18 deceased and more than 300 people registered irregularly, to reach the number of affiliates necessary to register the party. Accusations that the political group and its followers categorically reject.
![Peasants and indigenous people demonstrate in front of the headquarters of the Public Ministry (Prosecutor's Office) to demand the resignation of Attorney General Consuelo Porras, for the kidnapping of the minutes of the electoral results of the elections held on August 20, in Guatemala City , Guatemala, on October 2, 2023.](https://s.france24.com/media/display/386d6900-62df-11ee-a2c8-005056bf30b7/5bade641ce4cd209bed9fbcefedf08277e8c8ff4w.jpg)
Since then, Arévalo denounced “a desperate action by a criminal political group that realizes that its days are numbered in terms of control over political power.”
Although the progressive politician finally reached the second electoral round, after the country’s Constitutional Court protected Semilla in July and blocked the controversial suspension, the conflictive situation has been far from over.
But on August 18, a few days before the runoff, Curruchiche warned that he did not rule out raids and arrests even after the second round of elections. And he has been fulfilling it.
Now, the tension in the country threatens to escalate, especially after last Saturday, September 30, amidst pushing and insults, a group of prosecutors, backed by police, snatched the electoral records of the first and second electoral rounds, after a raid that lasted more than 20 hours.
The magistrates offered the officials of the accusing body the alternatives of scanning the minutes or making them public for the sake of transparency, and even created a human chain at the entrance of the building to stop the “kidnapping” of the documents, but all their efforts They were unsuccessful.
Judge Mynor Franco, 70, who fought against federal agents who were trying to take the vote counting boxes, said in a press conference on Monday that the actions of the Attorney General’s Office “were an assault on the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.” ”.
![A man protests in front of police officers guarding the headquarters of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, while prosecutors from the Public Ministry carry out a raid on the entity in which minutes of the 2023 general elections were forcibly taken, the magistrates denounce. In Guatemala City, on September 29, 2023.](https://s.france24.com/media/display/36617d78-5faf-11ee-be94-005056a90321/000_33X249Q.jpg)
“When they arrive with their faces covered and sunglasses in the morning, you say: ‘Are they criminals or authorities?’” Franco questioned.
Precisely the raid on the headquarters of the Electoral Tribunal unleashed the ongoing protests, a boiling point, in a country with serious allegations of corruption within the Government.
In January 2023, months before the elections, Curruchiche was sanctioned by the United States, accused of obstructing investigations into acts of corruption against officials in his country and making complaints described by Washington as “false.”
Among other acts, the official of the prosecuting body has been accused of stopping investigations against the current president Alejandro Giammattei and of having forced several journalists and prosecutors into exile or jail.
International condemnation for the “coup d’état in progress”
Arévalo, a 64-year-old sociologist, describes the investigations into his party as a “coup d’état in progress,” amid condemnation from the United States, the European Union and the Organization of American States (OAS), among others.
In fact, the OAS observation mission indicated that the prosecutors’ actions would have the objective of preventing Arévalo from assuming office.
Washington, for its part, imposed visa restrictions on those it considers to be behind “continued efforts to undermine the peaceful transition of power in Guatemala.”
![The elected president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, in Guatemala City on October 2, 2023.](https://s.france24.com/media/display/31c514b6-6250-11ee-a408-005056bf30b7/000_33XC73A.jpg)
On Tuesday, October 3, senior officials of Joe Biden’s Administration, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, met with the president-elect of Guatemala. Sullivan conveyed his country’s commitment to continuing to work with international allies to support the smooth transition of power.
But in the face of international scrutiny and condemnation, they have not stopped the judicial authorities of the Central American country.
With AP, EFE and local media
#Guatemala #protests #Prosecutors #Office #electoral #intervention #spread