GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Riot police began clearing road blockades by protesters Tuesday that have paralyzed parts of Guatemala for more than a week, just hours after President Alejandro Giammattei vowed to clear the country’s streets.
More than 120 roadblocks have paralyzed traffic and disrupted trade, while thousands of farmers and members of indigenous communities are demanding the resignation of Attorney General Consuelo Porras and expressing support for new progressive President Bernardo Arévalo.
Porras’ office has several ongoing investigations related to the August presidential election and has successfully sought the suspension of Arévalo’s party – moves that protesters denounce as attempts to thwart the new leader before he takes office in January.
A few dozen riot police stood in formation at a roadblock on a major highway in the capital. Some demonstrators briefly pushed, and more people quickly arrived and surrounded the outnumbered police. The roadblock remained in place.
On Monday evening, Giammattei said in a recorded message that he would arrest the protest leaders who he claimed were being funded and advised by foreigners.
Giammattei’s comments were the strongest attack yet on the protests, which he accused of harming the economy and causing “vandalism.” The comments suggested the president strongly supported his U.S.-sanctioned attorney general.
“We demand the appropriate arrest warrants so that justice can be carried out,” said Giammattei. He claimed the protest leaders had “received support and advice from foreigners” who he said were “also being arrested.”
“Foreign funds were transferred to Guatemalan NGOs, and these funds were used to supply and pay for portable toilets, in short, all the logistics for the blockades,” the president said.
The demonstrators are demanding an end to what they see as political persecution by prosecutors of Arévalo, who has vowed to root out corruption and has described the cases against him as an attempted coup.
Also on Tuesday, Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States, told the regional body’s permanent council that the actions of Porras’ office were “biased and irrational.”
The actions of Porras’ office “undermine independence and electoral secrecy and threaten democratic stability in Guatemala,” Almagro said.
While Guatemala’s Foreign Minister Mario Búcaro said the protests had led to vandalism and affected millions of Guatemalans, Almagro stressed that they had been peaceful but were vulnerable to criminal elements seeking to kidnap them.
Porras called on the government on Monday to take action against the largely peaceful protesters who have been taking to the streets for weeks demanding their resignation for allegedly trying to undermine their country’s democracy.
The protests erupted two weeks ago in Guatemala following one of the most tumultuous elections in the country’s recent history.
In a message posted on his social media accounts, Arévalo said Giammattei was endangering Guatemala’s democracy by supporting his controversial attorney general to the last.
“It is his responsibility as president to address the breach of constitutional rule that she (Porras) committed,” Arévalo said. “The way out of this crisis is to sit down and listen to the people who have made their demands very clear.”
Arévalo emerged as a political contender earlier this year after positioning himself as a progressive outsider challenging the elite that has long controlled the Central American nation. Since then, he and his Seed Movement party have faced waves of legal attacks. These only increased when he won the country’s elections in August.
The attacks included raids on voting facilities and the suspension of Arévalo’s political party, effectively hampering his ability to govern.
Such moves against the new leader prompted indigenous groups and rural residents – long disenfranchised in Guatemalan society – to launch an indefinite strike that began with 14 blockades. Now that protests have been going on for two weeks, the blockades have now spread to more than 80 streets across the country.
In a video published on Monday morning, Porras called the demonstrations against her “illegal” and called on the authorities to forcibly clear the blocked streets and allow free movement of people again.
Porras and other prosecutors were sanctioned by the U.S. government and had their entry visas revoked. She accuses them of hindering the fight against corruption and undermining democracy in Guatemala.