Guatemala: tension due to delay in the installation of Congress, a necessary step for Arévalo's investiture

First modification: 01/14/2024 – 22:03Last modification: 01/14/2024 – 22:19

2 min

The Guatemalan Congress is experiencing moments of tension this Sunday, January 14, due to a dispute over credentials that is hindering the inauguration of new legislators for the 2024-2028 period.

The opposition deputies Aldo Dávila, from the Winaq party, and Karina Paz, from the Vos party and re-elected in office, criticized that the process to give possession to the deputies elected in the June 2023 elections is not progressing, while new requirements are requested that are not in the law.

“This does not smell good,” said Paz, who along with Dávila, strongly questioned a commission created this Sunday in Parliament to verify the respective credentials.

The establishment of the new Guatemalan Congress for the period 2024-2028, composed of 160 deputies, It must take place this Sunday to be able to then make way for the investiture of the elected president, Bernardo Arévalo de León.

The tension comes after an electoral process marked by attempts since last July by the Public Ministry (Prosecutor's Office) to prevent Arévalo de León and the Semilla Movement from taking office this January 14, as established by law.

For months, Arévalo denounced the attack by the Prosecutor's Office, which even raided the headquarters of the electoral court and confiscated voting ballots, and assured that the Public Ministry sought to prevent his inauguration.

Dávila had also denounced that the commission to verify the respective credentials was created “by hand” this Sunday.

On Saturday, the elected Guatemalan deputy, Julio Héctor Estrada Domínguez, assured that an alleged criminal complaint against him, which appeared in the last 24 hours, sought to block him from taking office as of this Sunday.

Estrada Domínguez, former Minister of Economy (2016-2018), indicated through his official accounts that the complaint arose suddenly in a document that is a requirement to take office.

This document, a state settlement, has been requested with a date of 2024 by the board of directors of the current Guatemalan Congress, in a measure criticized by several sectors since it previously did not stipulate a date.

“The creation of new requirements outside the law clearly has a bad intention,” said Estrada Domínguez, of the Cabal political group.

The officials who must be sworn in this Sunday won their positions in the general elections held in June 2023.