The Public Ministry (Prosecution Service) on Thursday implicated Arévalo and Vice President-elect Karin Herrera in an investigation for damages in the occupation of the state university in 2022 and announced that it would request to withdraw the immunity granted to them for their status as elected to prosecute them.
The public prosecutor’s office had “filed six applications for the processing of pre-trial disqualification proceedings against six people,” the company announced on the social network X.
The list is headed by Arévalo and Herrera, along with a current and an elected MP from his Semilla party and two other opposition congressmen. The measure was opposed by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and the OAS.
The public prosecutor’s office accuses them of continued looting of cultural assets, illicit association and influence peddling.
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Following the “USAC Takeover Case: Political Plunder,” the MP, through the Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against the Nation’s Cultural Heritage, filed six requests for the processing of pre-trial deprivation proceedings against six people. pic.twitter.com/llJDamNoX8– Representative of Guatemala (@MPguatemala) November 17, 2023
Reaction of the elected president of Guatemala
Bernardo Arévalo described the measure as an “attack on democracy.” He claims he has been the victim of prosecution by the public prosecutor’s office since his surprise appearance in the first round of voting on June 25.
At the request of the public prosecutor’s office led by Consuelo Porras, a judge suspended the Semilla party and ordered controversial raids on the electoral court after an investigation into alleged anomalies in the elections.
Now the president-elect is accused of supporting on social networks academics and students who occupied the State University of San Carlos from May 2022 to June 2023, rejecting what they denounced as a fraudulent election of a rector linked to the government. by Alejandro Giammattei.
In the case, prosecutors and police searched several houses on Thursday and arrested five opponents of the university occupation, including a former candidate for deputy from the Semilla party.
SPRING: AFP