By Victoria Korn
The elected president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, broke off dialogue with the outgoing Government of Alejandro Giammattei, announced that he suspended the transition process, after the latest attack by the prosecutor’s office with the raid on two headquarters of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) and the review of 160 boxes with votes from the first round of the general elections on June 25.
Arévalo demanded the immediate resignation of the attorney general, Consuelo Porras; the special prosecutor, Rafael Curruchiche, and Judge Fredy Orellana for violating the electoral process, reiterating that they diverted their constitutional function of investigating and “have undertaken a new escalation in the coup d’état in progress that they began at the end of the first electoral round. Only his departure will allow constitutional order to be guaranteed, the future ruler warned at a press conference.
Since Arévalo, now president-elect, advanced to the runoff, the Prosecutor’s Office and criminal judge Freddy Orellana – following the directives of the so-called corrupt pact – took legal action to try to cancel his party, the Semilla Movement, due to an alleged case of false signatures during its creation process.
He added that he will ask that the immunity of the attorney general and Judge Orellana be lifted, and will file a criminal complaint against Curruchiche and assistant prosecutor Cinthia Monterroso, both from the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI).
Arévalo’s statements join those of several national and international organizations, which see with concern how the rule of law is deteriorating in the country, since, according to the president-elect, the operations of the Public Ministry (MP) contravene what is established in the Electoral and Political Party Law, which in article 243 says that only electoral boards, composed of citizens, can count the votes.
Arévalo added that “granting a judicial disguise to a spurious political action by the UNE party, this time in their attempt to nullify the popular will and mock the honest people, they have ordered the opening of some of the boxes that preserve the votes cast in the elections of the June 25th”. The actions constitute flagrant crimes of abuse of authority for electoral purposes and violation of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala, said the president-elect.
He assured that he will resume the presidential transition with Giammattei, scheduled for January 14, as soon as the necessary political conditions are reestablished, after clarifying that the only competent authorities to verify the safeguarding of electoral material are the TSE and the electoral boards.
He urged “all State institutions and officials not to give in to these arbitrariness, since in accordance with what is expressed in article 156 of our Constitution, no civil or military public official or employee is obliged to comply with orders that are manifestly illegal or that imply the commission of a crime.”
Given Arévalo’s decision, the presidency asserted that this is a measure that we respect, but do not share, since it was carried out as a result of actions outside the executive body that do not interfere with the process that had been developed to date.
This raid arises from a complaint from a citizen about alleged anomalies in one of the boxes where the voting ballots were filed, Curruchiche argued. The special prosecutor has ordered multiple actions against the Semilla Movement, Arévalo’s party, but clarified that this operation is not related to those proceedings.
The plenary session of the highest electoral court indicated in a statement that they were deeply concerned, faced with an unprecedented contravention of the electoral law. This, he stressed, shows that the intention is not to guarantee the popular will, but rather to generate uncertainty and doubts about a process that is the property of the citizens.
The president of the TSE, Irma Palencia, stated in a press conference that the raid refers to the search, inspection, seizure of evidence, extraction of digital information and analysis of digital data, but “at no time does it mention the opening of the boxes.” , much less the counting of votes or registration of the contents.
Palencia assured that “the custody of the vote was broken,” after the MP decided to open several electoral boxes and review the ballots outside the parameters indicated by the law and warned that with the actions of the Prosecutor’s Office “they are no longer responsible for the vote.” ” and that the intervention “is serious and puts the electoral process at risk.”
Palencia described the action of the Prosecutor’s Office as “grotesque” and recalled that the electoral results have already been made official so “in no way can they be invalidated” since the public positions won at the polls have already been awarded. He reported that the court analyzes What legal actions will they take? We didn’t think it was going to get to that point; The bottom line is that action needs to be taken, he said.
The Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) of the Organization of American States (OAS) expressed its “deep concern” after the raids carried out by the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI) and stated that these actions constitute further proof that The Public Ministry, far from adjusting to democratic standards, has been sharpening a strategy of questioning the elections.
“Questioning these elections already held is questioning the very will of the people of Guatemala, which on August 20 was expressed forcefully at the polls,” the Mission noted.
He added that these actions constitute further proof that the MP, “far from adjusting its actions to democratic standards, has been intensifying a strategy of questioning the electoral process and intimidating the electoral authorities, the electoral personnel and the thousands of people who , with enormous civic commitment, carried out two days of peaceful and transparent voting.
For their part, the United States Undersecretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Brian Nichols, the Organization of American States and the European Union separately expressed their concern about the registry, which they described as unjustified, and separately condemned the actions taken. by the judicial apparatus against the elections in the country.
*Venezuelan journalist, analyst of Central American and Caribbean issues, associated with the Latin American Center for Strategic Analysis (CLAE, www.estrategia.la)
