Por Giorgio Trucchi
The Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of Guatemala has arbitrarily denied the registration of the presidential candidate of the Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP) in the elections next June.
“These are totally absurd motivations,” Leiria Vay García, a member of the political leadership of the Peasant Development Committee (Codeca), told La Rel.
For the indigenous leader, the decision to declare inadmissible the registration of the Maya Mam leader, Thelma Cabrera, and the former Human Rights Ombudsman, Jordán Rodas, responds to a strategy of the Guatemalan factual powers to defend their interests and maintain the status quo.
“The truth is that this decision is not against Thelma and Jordán, but rather the project of transformation and construction of a plurinational State promoted by the peoples,” Vay said.
The obstacles that the presidential team of the MLP, Codeca’s political arm, is facing is nothing new.
Already in 2019, when the MLP launched the candidacy of Thelma Cabrera for the first time, the attacks against Codeca and the then presidential couple intensified.
In the last four years it is estimated that at least 24 Codeca activists have been assassinated with total impunity.
Likewise, a whole series of maneuvers were implemented so that the MLP did not have access to public funds for the electoral campaign, nor to media coverage similar to that of the other parties.
Nor was he allowed to register under the same conditions of his candidates for deputies and mayors
Despite this, the result was largely positive.
Thelma Cabrera polled nearly half a million votes, winning in three departments, placing second in five others, and ranking fourth nationally with 10.5 percent of the vote.
Without so many obstacles placed in his way, it is very likely that he would have agreed to the presidential runoff.
“In 2019 all forecasts were broken and that result set a very important precedent for the country.
They thought that, by murdering us, putting a media siege on us and leaving us without funds, they were going to arrest us. But no, the movement continued and was getting stronger and stronger”, explained the also responsible for International Relations of the MLP.
New wave of persecution and criminalization
Four years later, the powers that be implemented the same strategy again, but now with more force and more radical.
“The wave of persecution, defamation, criminalization and assassinations against Codeca leaders has been permanent. Thelma and Jordan were accused of nonsense.
What we believe –Vay continued– is that the elites, what we call ‘corrupt pact’, are concerned not only about the level of acceptance of the presidential binomial, but also about our agenda of struggle and structural changes.
They are concerned about the project of a popular and plurinational constituent assembly”.
For the Guatemalan powers that be, the forceful candidacy of the MLP has become a real danger to their interests.
“They are worried because they think they can lose the elections and they put up any obstacle to prevent us from advancing as peoples, that we are building our path to liberation,” Vay said.
The member of the political leadership of Codeca assured that they will never go looking for a change of candidacy.
“We are not an electoral party, but a political force that has a political project of profound transformation of the country.
We are not going to give in to the game of the electoral and judicial authorities. It has already been shown that they respond to the interests of the mafia that is entrenched in the institutions,” Vay said.
“We are not going to abandon Jordan (Rhodes). We are going through the legal path, we are going to demand that the participation of our presidential team be allowed, we are going to strengthen the campaign of our candidates for deputies and mayors ”, he concluded.
Fuente: Rel FORGET
