Yesterday, military helicopters flew over Zone 1, the center of Guatemala City, as they awaited the arrival of attendees – among them King Felipe VI and the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro – at the investiture of Bernardo Arévalo de León . However, inside the Congress no one was in their seats: gathered in some place that was not communicated, and after closing the access to the journalists to their box in the chamber, the deputies debated and fought about the your credentials. The solemn session of the legislature was going to waste and putting the taking of possession of Arévalo de León in jeopardy.
A new blow against the elected president had been consummated: his Movimiento Semilla was not recognized as a party by denying the Constitutional Court a provisional protection – an issue that has dragged on for months –, for which its 23 deputies ( Parliament has 160) should take their seats as independents; it was the way progressives could not get to the table of Congress. It was not even clear, at the close of this edition, if the leaders of Congress, who oppose Arévalo, would present themselves at the inauguration, which generated legal doubts.
Nevertheless, when the supporters of Arévalo protestors were exasperated outside, the deputies asked that they “not sabotage” the solemn acts, in a Congress taken by the police.
It is a public secret that at the heart of the case is the role of the Attorney General, Consuelo Porras, who has tried all possible legal tricks to invalidate Arévalo or bring him to trial.
Arévalo de León is an academic, a diplomat, and his election marked a political awakening in a population tired of corruption and impunity. “I feel excited, because we are finally reaching the end of this long and tortuous process – said Arévalo-. Guatemalan society has developed the determination to say no to these politico-criminal elites.” His anti-corruption stance and his status as a marginal politician are threats to deep-rooted interests in the Central American country. The fact that it got this far is largely due to thousands of indigenous people, who took to the streets to protest and demand that Porras and his prosecutors respect the vote on August 20, 2023. On Friday, his candidate for vice president , Karin Herrera, announced that the Constitutional Court had avoided an alleged arrest warrant. The investiture seemed guaranteed. Prosecutors have alleged irregularities in the way Movimiento Semilla collected signatures to register as a party, that its leaders encouraged a month-long occupation of a university and that there was fraud in the election. International observers have denied it.
On September 1, the president-elect warned that prosecutor Porras was carrying out a “coup d’état”. Two days later, the Supreme Electoral Court revoked the suspension of Movimiento Semilla, issued by the Registrar of Citizens of the same court. The decision asked the three powers of the State “with respect to the popular will expressed at the polls”. For Arévalo it was key that he quickly obtained support from the international community. The European Union, the Organization of American States and the United States Government repeatedly demanded respect for the popular vote. Washington has gone further, sanctioning Guatemalan officials and private citizens suspected of undermining the country’s democracy. Under Porras’ mandate, dozens of prosecutors and judges have fled the country to avoid arrest.
But the case, as was demonstrated yesterday, did not end there. On Thursday, the US Under Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Brian A. Nichols, said that the aggression against Arévalo will probably not end with his inauguration.
The victory of Arévalo de León meant a break in the history of Guatemala, a country ruled for 70 years by right-wing parties since President Jacobo Arbenz was overthrown in a coup organized by the United States with the help of the multinational United Fruits.
Movimiento Semilla was born from the anti-corruption demonstrations of 2015 that led to the fall of the government of Otto Pérez Molina due to a scandalous and millionaire case of bribes. Arévalo promised a “new spring”, like the one that starred the government of his father, Juan José Arévalo Bermejo, between 1946 and 1951, in one of the most developed administrations for the Central American country.
