The president-elect of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo de León, who won the polls on August 20 with the acceptance of 61% of the voters, has denounced the advance of a coup d’état to prevent the presidential couple and the elected deputies from for their party, the Seed Movement, take office on January 14. The 64-year-old sociologist has not beaten the bush and has named Attorney General Consuelo Porras as the main executor of the advanced coup he has denounced.
The coup d’état is directed “from the institutions that should guarantee justice in our country headed by the attorney general Consuelo Porras, by the prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche and the criminal judge Freddy Orellana, as well as the board of directors of the Congress of the Republic and others corrupt and undemocratic actors”, said the president-elect in a message to the population this Friday at noon.
The president-elect has called for the unity of all sectors of the population and legitimate political forces to defend the popular will expressed at the polls and defeat the coup forces. The message comes before a series of actions and protests to request the resignation of Porras as attorney general and head of the Public Ministry. And it occurs in a week in which the Supreme Electoral Tribunal made the election results official and, at the same time, provisionally suspended the legal status of the Arévalo party, the Seed Movement.
The suspension responds to the order issued by criminal judge Fredy Orellana at the request of prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, who is leading several investigations against opponents and anti-corruption justice operators in exile. Although the suspension is provisional and was appealed by Semilla, the congressional leadership ignored the party and declared the bloc’s seven legislators, including Arévalo, the president-elect, as independent.
Prosecutors Porras and Curruchiche, as well as Judge Orellana, whom Arévalo points out as responsible for the institutional breakdown, are part of the Engel list of corrupt and undemocratic actors of the United States Department of State. Porras is serving a second term as attorney general and head of the Public Ministry, elected by President Alejandro Giammattei. The US designation of Porras occurred after she arbitrarily fired anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval, who has been in exile for two years. Before leaving, Sandoval denounced that Porras obstructed several investigations that would reach President Giammattei.
“The justice apparatus is used to violate justice itself, mocking the popular will freely expressed at the polls,” Arévalo said. “It is being carried out step by step, through spurious, illegitimate and illegal actions, whose objective is to prevent the inauguration of the elected authorities including the president, the vice president and our deputies to the Congress of the Republic, weakening and denying the resources, authority and legitimacy that the people have constitutionally conferred on us,” said the 64-year-old sociologist, who is the son of former President Juan José Arévalo Bermejo.
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In the elections of June 25, Semilla obtained 23 deputies and the ignorance of the party would prevent them from integrating legislative commissions and integrating the directive of Congress. The marginalization of the party in power would weaken the Arévalo government, according to experts consulted by EL PAÍS.
call to unity
The elected ruler called on those who reject corruption and authoritarianism “to defeat the coup forces.” “I call on all the peoples of Guatemala, civil society, businessmen and workers, the popular movement, churches and indigenous authorities, legitimate political forces, students and academia, elected authorities , to the youth and to all Guatemalans who reject corruption and authoritarianism to join forces in defense of democracy and unrestricted respect for the popular will”, Arévalo exclaimed during his speech that lit up social networks.
“I call for us to unite to defeat the coup forces that intend to keep us submerged in corruption, impunity and poverty, to defend the most sacred political right and the most effective weapon of the people, the vote, to defend our opportunity as a nation for a new spring of the voracity of the corrupt”, he added.
Arévalo’s complaint occurred hours before a group of citizens presented a petition to the Public Ministry for Consuelo Porras to resign from office, backed by more than 100,000 signatures. “Guatemala cannot continue in a democracy if Consuelo Porras continues as Attorney General,” said one of the leaders of the action, which is not binding but shows the levels of rejection towards the head of the institution in charge of criminal prosecution.
The cries for resignation have been heard since July 12, when prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche announced the order for the suspension of the Movimiento Semilla party. For Saturday, several protests and actions are expected with the same objective, to request the resignation of Porras and the other actors who, in the opinion of the organizers, undermine democracy.
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