The Supreme Electoral Court of Guatemala yesterday revoked the suspension of the Movimiento Semilla party, with which academic Bernardo Arévalo de León won the presidency on August 20. The decision keeps Arévalo’s party alive. The court also asks the three powers of the State “to respect the will of the people expressed at the polls”.
The Movimiento Semilla party was suspended on August 28 by the Registrar of Citizens of the same Supreme Electoral Court. This opinion caused the board of directors of the country’s Congress to disown the party two days later. The suspension was the last of the obstacles that the party in government, which lost the elections, and the Prosecutor’s Office have put in place to prevent Bernardo Arévalo’s victory from materializing.
The Organization of American States (OAS) has denounced the situation and the same candidate stated on Friday that Guatemala is in a virtual “coup d’état” situation. Arévalo de León openly pointed out the Attorney General and head of the Public Ministry, Consuelo Porras, as one of the main promoters of this situation, as well as the prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche.
The investiture of Arévalo de León is scheduled for January 14, replacing the current president, Alejandro Giammattei.
Arévalo was elected on August 28 in a second round against the official candidate, Sandra Torres Casanova. Arévalo de León obtained 2.4 million votes – 59% of the total –, the highest number in the history of Guatemala, while Torres accumulated 1.5 million. Abstention was 55%.
The victory of Arévalo de León represents a break in the recent history of Guatemala, a country that has been led for 70 years by right-wing parties. This history goes back to the period 1951-1954, when the country was led by Jacobo Arbenz, a military man who promised to turn the country, a neo-colonial state, into a modern economy. Arbenz was deposed in a coup organized by the United States with the support of the multinational United Fruits, the country’s first company.
Considered a progressive and moderate left-wing party, the Movimiento group was born with the anti-corruption demonstrations registered in 2015 and which led to the fall of the government of Otto Pérez Molina due to a scandalous and millionaire bribery case.
