2023-12-12 04:00:00
Arévalo must assume the Presidency on January 14 and is in the middle of a political-judicial tug-of-war. Photo: AFP
The United States announced this Monday the withdrawal of the visa from some 300 Guatemalans, including a hundred deputies, and condemned the attempts to “undermine” democracy by the country’s Attorney General’s Office, which on Friday considered the results of the elections null. elections won by the social democrat Bernardo Arévalo.
“The United States strongly condemns the undemocratic actions of the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor’s Office and other malicious actors who are undermining the rule of law in Guatemala,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The visa restrictions affect some “300 Guatemalan nationals, including more than 100 members of Congress, as well as representatives of the private sector and their families,” according to the text, published by the AFP agency.
The sanctions come days after 108 deputies left four magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) without immunity and a budget that would leave the next government’s hands tied was approved with 115 votes.
In the background is the dispute over the electoral results that gave Arévalo the winner, who must assume the presidency on January 14.
On Friday, The Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office stated that the elections should be annulled due to alleged irregularities in the first round, but almost immediately the Supreme Electoral Tribunal assured that the results were “official and unalterable.”
Arévalo and the vice-elect, Karin Herrera, have also already received their respective credentials.
Also the Undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian Nichols, warned on his X network account (formerly Twitter) that “those who seek to subvert the will of the Guatemalan people will face consequences for their actions.”
.@WHAAsstSecty: Those who try to subvert the will of the Guatemalan people will face the consequences of their actions. Today’s action adds to our continued efforts to hold antidemocratic actors accountable and to support the Guatemalan people in the… https://t.co/mkPW8ZgVyK
— US Embassy Guatemala (@usembassyguate) December 11, 2023
The Washington text warns that The actions taken against the elected authorities and the TSE, as well as against representatives of political parties are “inconsistent with the Inter-American Democratic Charter.”
“Today’s actions reinforce previous actions by the United States government to promote accountability for corrupt and undemocratic actors in Guatemala and support the will of the Guatemalan people.“concludes the statement.
On Friday, the OAS also considered that the Public Ministry’s measures represented an attempted coup d’état.
Arévalo’s last message on network
While, The Prosecutor’s Office delivered a report to the TSE on the questioned investigation into the alleged anomalies for which it considers the elections “null.”
“The Special Prosecutor’s Office against Impunity forwarded to the President of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal the investigation that the prosecutor’s office has developed in criminal matters, so that after the analysis, they can adopt the decision they consider appropriate,” the entity stated online. social X (formerly Twitter), as reported by the AFP agency.
For him Public Ministry, there were anomalies in the final minutes of closing of scrutiny in the elections of president, vice president, deputies, corporations and deputies to the Central American Parliament.
Meanwhile, the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric expressed his solidarity with Arévalo in a telephone call and rejected the “attempts at destabilization.”
Today I spoke with the democratically elected President of Guatemala, @BArevalodeLeonand I expressed all my support in the face of the attempts to destabilize and interrupt the democratic process that some sectors of your country have carried out.
I also expressed to him that it will count…
— Gabriel Boric Font (@GabrielBoric) December 11, 2023
“Today I spoke with the democratically elected president of Guatemala and expressed my full support in the face of the attempts to destabilize and interrupt the democratic process that some sectors of his country have carried out. I also expressed to him that he will have my full support to enhance the economic, social and cultural relationship between our countries,” Boric revealed on his X network account.
He also called on the “international community to speak out and defend the institutions and Guatemalan constitutional order that is in danger today.” “Democracy, always. Blows, never,” concluded the president.
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