By: Staff Writer
October 10, 2023
Nearly two months after the August 30 Guatemalan presidential elections, protests against the results are still ongoing in the Central American country.
For over a week now, thousands of people in Guatemala have been blockading roads and taking to the streets in protest at attempts to undermine the president-elect’s transition to power.
On September 30, at a General Assembly, the indigenous and peasant communities of Guatemala called a National Strike to demand that the result of August’s election be respected. The strike has extended to the capital and has drawn in various sections of society. Demonstrators were also demanding the resignation of the attorney general and other prosecutors that have sought to interfere in the electoral process.
The attorney general’s office has conducted raids on the buildings of electoral authorities and Arevalo’s Semilla party headquarters and has moved to suspend the party.
President Elect Bernardo Arévalo has denounced the raids as politically motivated and has since withdrawn himself from the transition process from the Alejandro Giammattei government to himself.
Meanwhile, ongoing protests entered their eighth straight day on Monday, with Guatemalans taking to the streets to demand the resignation of authorities from the attorney general’s office, which has faced international accusations of trying to undermine Arevalo’s landslide electoral victory in August.
Arévalo and electoral authorities had challenged the suspension of his Seed Movement party in late August, arguing that the allegations of voter or registration fraud are criminal charges and that by suspending the party the prosecutors were intruding on electoral issues.
The constitutional court ruled Thursday that even though the case involves criminal accusations, prosecutors can impose measures that have electoral effects.
Without his party, Arévalo may be hamstrung after he takes office 14 January. Arévalo says politically motivated prosecutors are trying to overturn his victory in August elections. Prosecutors say some of the signatures used to register Arévalo’s party may have been false.
The Organization of American States observation mission said prosecutors’ actions appeared to be aimed at keeping Arévalo from taking office.
Arévalo had a surprisingly strong showing in the first round of Guatemala’s presidential election in June, building support with an anti-corruption campaign that attracted frustrated voters, and he won with nearly 61% of the vote in the August run-off.
Independent election observers have said that they did not see evidence of fraud that would have affected the results in either round of voting.
But that has not stopped raids by the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, and prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, efforts that international groups have said are aimed at overturning or tarnishing the electoral results.
Porras took over as attorney general in 2018 and in 2021 was sanctioned by the US government for being an undemocratic actor and undermining investigations into corruption. She has denied any wrongdoing.
Porras’ office has ongoing investigations into the way Arévalo’s Seed Movement gathered the necessary signatures for its registration years earlier.
Meanwhile, the press has been persecuted, while figures critical of the regime have been subject to accusations. In this period, individuals such as Thelma Aldana, Andrei González, Claudia Escobar Mejia, Juan Francisco Sandoval and anti-corruption judges and prosecutors have had to head into exile to avoid becoming victims of the witch hunt unleashed by the attorney general and president Giammattei.