The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) assured that the Public Ministry (MP) commits abuse of power against Bernardo Arevalo. The organization criticized the “abusive exercise of power” by the MP in his actions against the elected president. Also, against his party, the Semilla Movement.
Through a statement, the organization made a “call to cease the interventionist actions of the Public Ministry that threaten the democratic order and the sovereign will of the population.”
Read also: Former presidents of Ibero-America: In Guatemala the democratic order is “seriously affected”
The IACHR considers that the MP, led by the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, is attacking “the democratic order, the ongoing presidential transition process and the exercise of civil and political liberties.”
For this reason, it rejects what it considers “the abusive exercise of power” perpetrated by the Prosecutor’s Office “through incessant improper actions and interference.”
#Guatemala: #IACHR y @RELE_CIDH They reject the persistent abuse of power for political-electoral purposes and criminalization.#Human rights 👉🏾 pic.twitter.com/Iau7rpn0gU
— CIDH – IACHR (@CIDH) November 18, 2023
The MP requested on Thursday the withdrawal of the judicial immunity of Arévalo and the elected vice president, Karin Herrera. This is due to an alleged case of damage to public assets in the 2022 takeover of the University of San Carlos.
In this same case, the former candidate for deputy of the Semilla party Marcela Blanco was captured. In addition, arrest warrants were issued for 25 other people. Among them former officials, politicians, students and university professors.
This is a new chapter in the judicial offensive that the Guatemalan Public Ministry, whose leadership is censured by the United States for corruption, has undertaken against Arévalo and his entourage since the progressive candidate won the presidential elections by surprise.
Arévalo has publicly denounced what he considers to be an attempted coup d’état by Porras to prevent him from assuming the Presidency of Guatemala on January 14, when he is due to succeed the outgoing president, Alejandro Giammattei, in office.
