2023-08-28 00:51:22
A group of prosecutors notified him that they obtained privileged information about criminal gang structures that would supposedly seek to assassinate him.
The celebration of the academic Bernardo Arévalo as president-elect of Guatemala on Sunday the 20th was interrupted when, in private, the Prosecutor’s Office, whose leadership is sanctioned by the United States and has been trying to suspend his candidacy for weeks, informed him that gangs were allegedly plotting to assassinate him.
The message from the Prosecutor’s Office came in full victory speech in a hotel in Guatemala City, just minutes after his electoral triumph, and joins another plan called ‘Colosio’ with the aim of taking the life of the Seed Movement candidate, according to a report by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR).
The four prosecutors, members of the department against extortion crimes, approached Arévalo de León and asked for a private meeting. In it they notified him that they obtained “privileged information” about “criminal gang structures” that would supposedly seek to assassinate him.
The meeting with the staff of the Public Ministry lasted half an hour. That Sunday, while hundreds of people celebrated the historic victory of the progressive party outside the hotel, Arévalo de León did not go out to celebrate with his followers.
Photograph showing images of Guatemala’s Attorney General María Consuelo Porras, who wanted to suspend Arévalo’s candidacy. Photo EFE
Private security
to the president-elect He has had no choice but to “resort to private security, given the existing distrust of State entities in the current context,” anticipated the IACHR report. Under these circumstances, Arévalo de León is transported in a borrowed car with “level 3 armor” when the recommendation is “level 7”.
The party’s lack of funds has also caused the vice president-elect, Karin Herrera, to have a transport car donated by a supporter and not commensurate with the possible risks.
The alleged plot by gang members is not the only plan to assassinate Arévalo de León, according to the IACHR report and the Seed Movement itself. On August 15, just five days before the second round of elections, Arévalo’s security team received “worrying information” about a “plan to assassinate him with participation of state agents and private individuals”.
The information was confirmed by “at least three sources within state institutions, with a high degree of reliability,” and that “they do not know each other,” the entity of the Organization of American States (OAS) specified.
Celebration in Guatemala after the triumph of Arévalo. AFP photo
The plot intended, based on the assigned name, repeat the assassination of Mexican candidate Luis Alberto Colosiowho in 1994 was killed with a firearm during a public act, prior to the elections in the North American nation.
However, the State of Guatemala “questioned” the existence of the “Colosio plan” and classified it as a non-existent threat, according to the IACHR report.
scandals
Subsequently, after requesting in a statement to the IACHR “prudence” on August 24 due to “the consequences that unfounded statements may generate”, the government of the current president, Alejandro Giammattei, it assigned 50 more police officers to the security of Arévalo de León.
The plans to assassinate the candidate of the Seed Movement are yet another scandal in the Guatemalan electoral process, the most troubled since the implantation of democracy in 1996.
According to experts, Arévalo’s victory in the recent run-off has left the so-called “Covenant of Corrupt”a group of politicians and businessmen who have co-opted the country for several years and who did not count on Semilla’s surprise victory.
Precisely, last Friday the Secretary General of the United Nations Organization, António Guterres, expressed his “concern” about the “attempts to undermine” the results of the elections that gave victory to Arévalo. His investiture should take place on January 14.
EFE Agency
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