The elected President of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo de León, who won the August 20 elections with the approval of 61% of voters, has denounced the advance of a coup to prevent the presidential duo and elected deputies from winning the party Seed Movement will take office on January 14th. The 64-year-old sociologist did not beat around the bush and appointed Attorney General Consuelo Porras as the main executor of the coup attempt he denounced.
The coup is “led by the institutions that are supposed to ensure justice in our country, led by Attorney General Consuelo Porras, Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche and Criminal Judge Freddy Orellana, as well as the Executive Board of the Congress of the Republic and other corrupt and undemocratic actors” , said the President-elect in a message to the population on Friday afternoon.
The president-elect has called for the unity of all population groups and legitimate political forces to defend the popular will expressed in the elections and defeat the coup forces. The message marks the start of a series of actions and protests calling for Porras to resign as attorney general and head of the State Department. And it comes in a week in which the Supreme Electoral Court made the election results official while temporarily suspending the legal status of Arévalo’s party, the Semilla Movement.
The suspension comes in response to the order of criminal judge Fredy Orellana at the request of prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, who is leading several investigations against opponents and employees of the anti-corruption justice system in exile. Although the suspension is temporary and was appealed by Semilla, the congressional leadership ignored the party and declared the bloc’s seven deputies independent, including Arévalo, the president-elect.
Prosecutors Porras and Curruchiche, as well as Judge Orellana, whom Arévalo blames for the institutional collapse, are on the Angel List of corrupt and undemocratic actors in the US State Department. Porras is serving a second term as attorney general and head of the public ministry, chosen by President Alejandro Giammattei. The US designation of Porras came after he arbitrarily fired anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval, who was serving two years in exile. Before leaving, Sandoval denounced that Porras had obstructed several investigations that would reach President Giammattei.
“The judicial apparatus is being used to violate justice itself and to mock the will of the people, freely expressed in the elections,” Arévalo said. “It is carried out step by step through false, illegitimate and illegal actions whose aim is to prevent, weaken and deny the inauguration of the elected authorities, including the President, the Vice President and our deputies in the Congress of the Republic. “Resources, authority and legitimacy that the people gave us in the Constitution,” said the 64-year-old sociologist, son of former President Juan José Arévalo Bermejo.
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In the June 25 elections, Semilla won 23 deputies, and the party’s ignorance prevented her from entering legislative commissions and the congressional executive board. According to experts interviewed by EL PAÍS, marginalizing the ruling party would weaken the Arévalo government.
Call for unity
The ruler-elect urged those opposed to corruption and authoritarianism to “defeat the coup forces.” “I appeal to all the people of Guatemala, to civil society, to businessmen and workers, to the popular movement, to churches and indigenous authorities, to legitimate political forces, to students and scientists, to elected authorities,” to the youth and “I “Call on all Guatemalans who reject corruption and authoritarianism to work in the defense of democracy and full respect for the will of the people,” Arévalo exclaimed during his speech, which caused a stir on social networks.
“I call on us to unite to defeat the coup forces that seek to trap us in corruption, impunity and poverty, to defend the most sacred political right and the people’s most powerful weapon, the right to vote, and for our opportunity as citizens to defend the nation for a new spring of greed of the corrupt,” he added.
Arévalo’s complaint came a few hours before a group of citizens submitted a petition to the State Ministry calling on Consuelo Porras to resign from his post, supported by more than 100,000 signatures. “Guatemala cannot continue democracy if Consuelo Porras continues to be attorney general,” said one of the leaders of the lawsuit, which is not binding but shows the level of opposition to the head of the institution responsible for law enforcement.
The calls for resignation have been heard since July 12, when prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche announced the suspension of the Movimiento Semilla party. Several protests and actions are expected on Saturday with the same goal, namely to demand the resignation of Porras and the other actors who, according to the organizers, are undermining democracy.
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