The Guatemalan justice system suspended this Thursday the party of president-elect Bernardo Arévalo, the Semilla Movement. The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) responded to a request from criminal judge Fredy Orellana, who is investigating alleged “anomalies in the creation process” of the political group, five years ago. The attack on the president-elect’s party is possible after the TSE ended the electoral period on October 31, during which no legal action was possible against the party of the winner of the general elections on August 20.
On July 12, the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI) ordered the suspension of the Semilla Movement, in one more attempt to derail the political party that surprised in the first electoral round and won the second with its candidate Bernardo Arévalo. That same day, the Prosecutor’s Office seized the boxes containing the results of the elections. Fearing judicial persecution against the Semilla Movement and the integrity of the electoral results, 48 cantons of Totonicapán, the Alliance for Reforms, the National Convergence of Resistance and some political parties, among other civil society actors, asked the TSE to extend the period elections until January 15. However, they were not listened to.
The order to suspend the Semilla Movement was made official by the TSE Citizen Registry. However, the electoral body stressed that this suspension of the political party that won the presidency “cannot reverse the results” that gave victory to Arévalo, nor can it annul the 23 legislators obtained by the Semilla Movement.
Arévalo insists: “Coup d’état”
The Semilla Movement spokesperson said that they have not yet been notified about the suspension of their party. However, the president-elect, Bernardo Arévalo, accused Attorney General Consuelo Porras and Judge Orellana of attempting a “coup d’état” to prevent him from taking office on January 14.
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“We call on the Public Ministry and the Judicial Branch to cease all action to circumvent the voice of the people freely expressed at the polls,” Arévalo declared during a press conference in Guatemala City. “The results are final and unalterable (…) However, Guatemalans have to be ready to defend the results against the legal and spurious assault by the Public Ministry, if it continues to occur.”
The judicial actions of Porras and the judges have provoked massive protests and road blockades by the population to demand their resignation and a clean-up of the justice system. It has been the indigenous movements that have led the popular mobilizations and a national strike. This Wednesday, the indigenous leadership insisted that they will remain in “resistance” against the Prosecutor’s Office.
The organizations announced that they will hold several marches this November 3 and 4 in the center of Guatemala City, in addition to maintaining the sit-in that they have been carrying out since October 2 in front of the Prosecutor’s Office. “This is a fight in favor of democracy, for the good of the people of Guatemala, waiting for our decision to elect our public officials to be respected,” said Luis Pacheco, president of the indigenous organization 48 cantons of Totonicapán. “We continue in peaceful resistance, and we do not come for anything other than to defend democracy.”
Pacheco said that, in addition to various indigenous communities, they are also supported by “different sectors” such as “markets in Guatemala City and civil society.”
United States removes visas
Aside from the events in Guatemala, the United States Government imposed travel restrictions on 14 people, and their immediate family members, for “undermining democracy and the rule of law” in that Central American country. The State Department did not specify the names of those affected, but diplomatic sources assured EL PAÍS that among them are several officials from the Public Ministry.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller emphasized that the United States “rejects continued efforts to undermine the peaceful transition of power in Guatemala to President-elect Bernardo Arévalo.” The Washington official highlighted that the Prosecutor’s Office, among other actions, has seized electoral material that was in the custody of the TSE or has requested the forcible evacuation of peaceful protesters.
This “undemocratic behavior undermines the democratic institutions of Guatemala and is inconsistent with the principles of the Inter-American Democratic Charter,” Miller highlighted.
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