Protests against the Attorney General’s Office are spreading in Guatemala over its actions against President-elect Arévalo. The demonstrators accuse her of wanting to prevent the transfer of power.
Consuelo Porras and Rafael Curruchiche are currently on everyone’s lips in Guatemala. The Central American country’s attorney general and the head of a special prosecutor’s office against impunity raided the Supreme Electoral Court at the end of September and confiscated boxes of election documents.
It is the climax so far of a months-long crackdown by the Guatemalan judiciary against President Bernardo Arévalo, who was elected in the runoff election on August 20, and his party, the anti-corruption movement Semilla. Semilla had already been stripped of her parliamentary group status weeks ago – the elected president immediately described the raid on the electoral authority as an attempted coup.
Demand for resignation
Since then, there have been daily demonstrations in front of the public prosecutor’s office, which was so criticized, and on Saturday there were probably over a hundred road blockades and rallies across the country. Mónica from the indigenous Q’echi’ people is demonstrating once again in San Pedro Carchá, five and a half hours away from Guatemala City.
Hundreds of them are loudly demanding the resignation of the prosecutors and judges who have been branded corrupt: “We have decided to take to the streets again to defend our voice,” said Mónica. “We see how this ‘pact of the corrupt’ is trampling on our right to vote. We demand the resignation of these corrupt people. We are very concerned that the ‘pact of the corrupt’ is ruling our country again.”
Thelma Aldana is Consulo Porras’ predecessor as Attorney General and a recognized anti-corruption campaigner. She now lives in exile in the USA. According to Aldana, the so-called “pact of the corrupt,” which is notorious in Guatemala, involves “illegal networks that have been deeply anchored in the Guatemalan state for decades. Corrupt people from politics, the judiciary and authorities, the police and army, the upper class and the Economy. They use the control they have gained over democratic institutions to plunder the state’s resources.”
Human rights lawyer: Public prosecutor as the spearhead of the pact
The human rights lawyer Michael “Miguel” Mörth has lived in Guatemala for a long time and explains why the public prosecutor’s office is now taking action against an officially announced, internationally recognized election result: The public prosecutor’s office in Guatemala is the center and spearhead of the pact of the corrupt, has persecuted judges, persecuted prosecutors, Lawyers put in jail, he says.
And today they tried to ensure that either Arévalo and his deputy Karin Herrera cannot take power – “or at least take it extremely weakened because they do not have the party, which would then be suspended. In order to avoid the change of power that is about to take place “In order to keep the pact of the corrupt in power, to control state institutions and, above all, not to allow prosecution of corruption crimes,” he continued.
Arévalo’s main support base is the civil society protest against the prosecutor’s attacks. At the weekend, he thanked his supporters in a video message on
On Friday afternoon, the government denied circulating rumors that current President Alejandro Giammattei could declare a state of emergency because of the road blockades. However, such a step cannot be ruled out if the protests escalate.
Broad international support for Arévalo
Arévalo enjoys widespread support internationally: the US, the Organization of American States and the EU have expressed deep concern about ongoing attempts to undermine the elections. The German Foreign Office also expresses the clear expectation that Arévalo, as elected president, will take up his new office as scheduled on January 14, 2024.