The new president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, who was finally able to take office early Monday morning in a bizarre inauguration, has found his main support in the United States. In a series of chain statements, the White House, starting with President Joe Biden, devoted itself on Monday to supporting the reformist social democratic leader, sending an unequivocal message to the traditional political class, removed from power by Arévalo, after trying to derail his inauguration in what his supporters call an attempted “coup.”
“The ties between Guatemala and the United States are deep, and the inauguration is proof of our historic commitment to democracy,” Biden said in a statement in which he congratulated Arévalo and urged him to collaborate on “human rights” issues. “, “security”, “migration” and also in the fight against “corruption”, the new president’s main battlehorse and what has caused the powers that be to resist his investiture tooth and nail.
At the same time, in another significant gesture, US Vice President Kamala Harris invited this 65-year-old career diplomat and former congressman to visit Washington “in the coming months.” For his part, in a third statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken also congratulated the new president, thanking the Guatemalan people “for promoting democracy in difficult circumstances” and the international community “for safeguarding electoral integrity,” remarking “ the key role” that the OAS played during the eventful inauguration.
In fact, it was the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, who read on Sunday – in the middle of a chaotic day in which deputies sympathetic to the outgoing conservative government of Alejandro Giammattei tried to torpedo the presidential replacement in Congress – the joint statement. of support for Arévalo, signed by the Foreign Ministers who traveled to Guatemala City, as well as by the High Representative of Foreign Affairs of the EU, Josep Borrell.
“We call on the Congress of the Republic to comply with its constitutional mandate to hand over power as required by the Constitution,” Almagro read, in an improvised appearance and flanked by Borrell and the foreign ministers present, including the Spanish José Manuel Albares. “The Guatemalan people expressed their democratic will in fair, free and transparent elections,” the joint statement said.
At that time of the Guatemalan afternoon it was already clear that the deputies opposed to Arévalo were trying to prevent his inauguration, hindering the constitution of Congress, an essential preliminary step for the president to be sworn into office. They managed to delay the swearing-in ceremony at the Miguel Ángel Asturias Cultural Center for more than ten hours, although it finally took place in the early morning, with the announced absence of Giammattei, but also of several of the invited leaders who, given the delay and uncertainty , ended up leaving the country, like King Felipe VI or the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric.
Among the foreign representatives who remained until Arévalo was sworn in as president was Biden’s envoy, Samanta Power, director of USAID, the US development agency, who had previously also demanded that Congress “respect the will of the people.”
The dispute in parliament ended with the election as president of the chamber of Samuel Pérez, deputy of the Semilla Movement, the party founded by Arévalo to fight corruption, despite the fact that the ruling party only has 23 of the 160 seats and of the court’s decision to outlaw it after last August’s elections, which the new president won against the odds with almost 61% of the votes.
“Never again will authoritarianism,” Arévalo said in his first speech. “We will not tolerate our institutions bowing again to corruption and impunity,” he added.
Before taking office, Arévalo had already announced that he will demand the resignation of the State Attorney General, Consuelo Porras, whom he accuses of leading the “coup” against him since his electoral victory.