2023-07-21 23:55:23
Followers of the Guatemalan presidential candidate Bernardo Arévalo, of the Seed Movement, protest to demand respect for the results of the first round (REUTERS / Cristina Chiquin)
The United States accused this Friday the Public Ministry of Guatemala of trying to “undermine the will of the Guatemalan people” with the raid on the headquarters of the Seed Movement, a gesture that it considered typical of “dictatorships” such as Nicaragua’s.
“Using judicial institutions in an arbitrary and political way are actions used by authoritarian governments, not only in Latin America but in other parts of the world. We see it in Cuba and Nicaragua. It is part of the dictatorship manual,” a senior US government official told the EFE news agency on condition of anonymity.
In turn, the European Union External Action Service reiterated its call on the Guatemalan authorities to “fully respect” the integrity of the electoral process and the result of the first round of voting, certified by the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).
“The EU expresses its utmost concern over the actions initiated by the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Impunity that resulted in arrest warrants against the deputy director of the Citizen Registry and a member of the Semilla political party, as well as a search at the TSE offices,” the European diplomacy said in a statement.
The raid is part of the attempts by the Prosecutor’s Office to suspend Semilla, the party that is running the progressive Bernardo Arévalo de León for the Presidency ahead of the second round of elections, scheduled for August 20 and in which he will face former first lady Sandra Torres.
The Joe Biden government is following this issue “very closely” and considers the efforts of the Public Ministry to “undermine the will of the Guatemalan people to elect their own leaders” “very worrying,” said the senior official.
A policeman puts a box sealed with tape that reads “Evidence” in a vehicle during a raid on the headquarters of the Semilla party (REUTERS / Cristina Chiquin)
He recalled that the United States has sanctioned the special prosecutor against impunity, Rafael Curruchiche, and the Guatemalan attorney general, María Consuelo Porras, and warned that Washington is “prepared” to use all the tools necessary to “defend the Guatemalan people.”
The Department of State also included this Thursday in the so-called “Engel List” of corrupt the Guatemalan prosecutor Cinthia Monterroso, who has carried out the accusation against Semilla, and Judge Fredy Orellana, who endorsed the suspension of the formation.
The senior administration official recalled that the electoral mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) endorsed the integrity of the first round held on June 25, and demanded that “the Guatemalan people be allowed” to decide in the second round on August 20.
The US ambassador to the Guatemalan country, William Popp, has been in contact with all the actors, including the Arévalo and Torres campaigns.
The official also highlighted that the actions of the Prosecutor’s Office have been rejected by the international community and by a “massive mobilization in Guatemala”, made up of civil society, the private sector and the Church.
Supporters of Bernardo Arévalo attend a campaign rally (REUTERS/Cristina Chiquin)
The Guatemalan Constitutional Court, which has been stopping the attempts of the Prosecutor’s Office, reiterated this Friday that the second round of elections scheduled for August 20 must be carried out with the candidates Torres and Arévalo de León.
Arévalo de León managed to advance to the ballot after surprisingly obtaining second place in the elections on June 25, behind the former first lady, while the polls placed him in seventh or eighth place.
The Semilla group was born from the demonstrations against corruption registered in the Central American country during 2015 and which culminated in the fall of the government of Otto Pérez Molina (2012-2015), currently in prison.
(With information from EFE)
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After yesterday’s search in the Electoral Tribunal, the Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office raided the headquarters of the Movimiento Semilla party
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