The elected president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, rejected the decision of the Public Ministry (Prosecutor’s Office) to request the invalidity of his electoral victory, which he described as a “blow to the heart of Guatemalan democracy” when there is only a little more than a month left. his investiture.
“We are facing an absurd, ridiculous, and perverse coup d’état. The coup plotters are kicking as if they were drowning,” said Arévalo in a press conference held in the last hours of yesterday.
“It is a blow to the heart of our democracy,” he stressed, and called on Guatemalans to “energetically defend” the elections and the “possibility of building a different country.”
Arévalo maintains that the Public Ministry seeks to prevent him from assuming power on January 14, since powerful traditional political sectors fear his promise of a frontal fight against corruption.
In this new offensive, prosecutor Leonor Morales denounced anomalies in “the final minutes of closing of scrutiny” because they were not approved by the “plenary” of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) so “they are null” to record the results of the elections. elections.
In a press conference, Morales indicated that the investigation was carried out based on the complaint of “a citizen,” but he did not identify him or mention those responsible.
The head of the prosecutor’s office against Impunity, Rafael Curruchiche, announced that the TSE must analyze the results of the investigation and make “the decision in this regard.”
But immediately, the president of the TSE, Blanca Alfaro, defended the election of Arévalo, a 65-year-old social democrat who won in the second presidential round last August, after the general elections in June.
“The results are validated, they are official and they are unalterable (…)”, the elected officials “must take office” in January, “otherwise there is a breakdown of the constitutional order,” he stated, quoted by the AFP news agency.
The magistrate assured that the prosecutor’s office does not have the “power” to make the TSE annul an election, “except for a ruling” from the Constitutional Court (highest judicial body).
Arévalo and his followers accuse Attorney General Consuelo Porras of being the architect of the “coup d’état” and called for her resignation in street demonstrations. “The coup plotters are trying to destroy the democratic regime,” the elected president insisted.
The United States, the European Union (EU) and the Organization of American States (OAS) condemned the actions of the prosecution.
It is “another flagrant and unacceptable attempt to defy the will of Guatemalans and deny the election of the president-elect,” said on the social network He promised “a strong response” from Washington.
“The attempt to annul the elections (…) constitutes the worst form of democratic breakdown and the consolidation of a political fraud against the will of the people,” stated the OAS General Secretariat.
The EU “unequivocally condemns attempts” to annul the election results “based on false accusations of fraud,” said the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
“We are facing a coup d’état in Guatemala. The OAS must act immediately. All support to the Guatemalan people. A prosecutor’s office that has covered up drug trafficking and corruption acts against democracy,” wrote the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, in your X network account.
Spain, through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also rejected “in a categorical manner” the actions of the Public Ministry that “attack democracy” and represent “a serious violation of the will of the Guatemalan people freely expressed at the polls.”
For its part, the Guatemalan government “strongly rejected the hasty pronouncements of some actors in the international community” by pointing out actions that could “represent an alteration of the constitutional order.”
“There is no action that can prevent all elected authorities from taking office,” he said in a statement.
Rejecting criticism from the international community, Curruchiche assured that the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, as well as “diplomats, ambassadors, senators from foreign countries abusively want to interfere” and prevent the prosecutor’s office from investigating.
The prosecution also accused Arévalo of alleged illegalities in the formation of his party, Semilla, in 2018, in addition to an alleged case of money laundering, for which he insisted that his immunity as president-elect should be withdrawn.
According to the prosecution, Arévalo knew about forged signatures when the party was created and allegedly did not register the political force’s income either.
Arévalo rejected those accusations and said that everything “is duly documented.”
In November, the prosecutor’s office presented a first request to strip Arévalo and the vice president-elect, Karin Herrera, of immunity, whom they accused of instigating students who occupied a state university from May 2022 to June 2023.
Source: Ambito
