Military helicopters flew over Zone 1 yesterday, the center of Guatemala City, while awaiting the arrival of attendees – including King Felipe VI and the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro – to the investiture of Bernardo Arévalo de León. However, within Congress no one was in their seat: meeting in some place that was not communicated, and after closing journalists’ access to their box in the chamber, the deputies debated and quarreled over their credentials. The solemn session of the legislature was going to waste and endangered the inauguration of Arévalo de León.
A new blow against the president-elect had already been carried out: his Semilla Movement was not recognized as a party when the Constitutional Court denied provisional protection – an issue that has dragged on for months – so its 23 deputies (Parliament has 160 ) would have to take their seats as independents; It was the way that progressives could not access the Congress table. It was not even clear, at press time, whether congressional leaders, who oppose Arévalo, would show up for the inauguration, raising legal doubts.
However, when the pro-Arévalo protesters became exasperated outside, the deputies asked that they “not sabotage” the solemn events, in a Congress taken over by the police.
Among the international support that Arévalo has received is that of the high representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, who in his X account claimed to respect the result of the elections and made public the agreement signed on behalf of the European Union in support of President Arévalo and the democracy of Guatemala.
It is an open secret that at the heart of the case is the role of the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, who has tried every legal trick possible to invalidate Arévalo or take him to trial.
Meanwhile, in the streets, dozens of protesters have clashed with riot police outside Congress, where the solemn session of the legislature is to take place. The protesters have broken down several barriers that prevented access to the streets surrounding Congress, and have subsequently been repressed with tear gas. At the moment no injuries have been reported.
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,” Arévalo had said. “Guatemalan society has developed the determination to say no to these political-criminal elites.” His anti-corruption stance and his status as a marginal politician are threats to deeply rooted interests in the Central American country. The fact that he 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 of August 20, 2023. Last 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 the Semilla Movement 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 this.
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 the Semilla Movement, issued by the Registrar of Citizens of the same court. The ruling asked the three branches of government to “respect 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 being arrested.
But the matter, as demonstrated yesterday, did not end there. On Thursday, US Undersecretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Brian A. Nichols, said the aggression against Arévalo will likely not end with his inauguration.
Arévalo de León’s victory marked 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 d’état organized by the United States with the help of the multinational United Fruits.
Movimiento Semilla was born from the anti-corruption demonstrations of 2015, which led to the fall of the Government of Otto Pérez Molina due to a scandalous and million-dollar bribery case. Arévalo promised a “new spring”, like the one led by 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.
