September 2, 2023
Guatemalan President-elect Bernardo Arévalo in a press conference with Vice President-elect Karin Herrer Photo: Esteban Biba/EFE.
The president-elect of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, denounced “a coup d’état in progress” in the country, where the Congress has refused to recognize the parliamentary bloc of his party, the Semilla Movement, after the party’s legal status was temporarily suspended by the judiciary.
“We are witnessing an ongoing coup d’état, in which the judicial apparatus is being used to violate justice itself, mocking the people’s will freely expressed at the ballot on August 20,” Arévalo said on Friday, September 1.
In a press conference together with Vice President-elect Karin Herrera, Arévalo denounced the “spurious, illegitimate, and illegal actions in different institutions” aimed at “preventing the inauguration of the elected authorities, including the president, the vice-president, and our deputies to the Congress of the Republic.”
He accused the Attorney General Consuelo Porras, Attorney Rafael Curruchiche, Judge Fredy Orellana, and the Congress and “other corrupt sectors” of promoting this coup.
“There is a group of corrupt politicians and officials who refuse to accept the electoral result and have set in motion a plot to break the constitutional order and violate democracy,” Arévalo stated.
Guatemalan Congress refuses to recognize Semilla
The parliamentary board of Guatemala, led by Shirley Rivera, deputy of the ruling Vamos party, announced on Wednesday, August 30, that Semilla is no longer a legislative bloc and its five legislators, including Arévalo, were declared as independents.
The Congress justified this action following the provisional suspension of the legal status of the Semilla Movement party by the General Directorate of the Registry of Citizens of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), announced on Monday, August 28.
The decision of the TSE complied with the ruling of Orellana, who ordered the suspension of the Semilla party at the request of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Against Impunity (FECI), on the grounds of an alleged fraudulent registration of party members in 2017 and 2018.
In response to the situation in Guatemala, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urged all authorities to respect the electoral results.
“The Guatemalan State must respect the results of the elections held in a free and fair manner, which constitute the maximum expression of the sovereign will, and one of the main foundations of representative democracy,” the IACHR said in a press release.
Call for democracy
With 100 % of the ballots counted, the TSE officially recognized Arévalo’s victory with 58 % of the valid votes against 37 % for the former first lady, Sandra Torres.
However, Arévalo pointed out that there are still four months before the inauguration, a period in which “these political mafias would try to consummate the coup d’état.”
“We remind everyone that the resistance of the people for the protection and defense of the rights and guarantees in our Constitution, such as the right to peaceful demonstration, are legitimate,” he said.
The president elect called on Guatemalan society to”join forces in defense of democracy and total respect for the will of the people.”
Guatemalan lawyer and political analyst Oswaldo Samayoa explained that Arévalo’s statements are in response to the constant attacks against the popular vote and his party.
Source: Orinoco Tribune