By: Staff Writer
January 16, 2024
Guatemala’s new President Bernardo Arévalo official took office after congressional chaos force hours long delays that saw him sworn in at approximately 1:30am on January 15.
Chaos erupted in the Guatemalan congress as some members, loyal to the outgoing Alejandro Giammattei government, sought to disrupt the inauguration proceedings by blocking some of the entrances and locking some of the doors into the building.
Footage shows one congressman being spat on as angry Arévalo supporters turned their ire against them in protest of their stalling tactics. More footage shows a congresswoman being led from the congress building by officers to the chants of corrupt.
“We will not allow our institutions to be bent by corruption and impunity,” Arévalo said at the inauguration ceremony — held in Guatemala City more than nine hours late after a last-ditch effort to prevent the anti-corruption crusader from taking office.
The 65-year-old former lawmaker, diplomat and sociologist pulled off a major upset when he swept from obscurity to win elections last August, firing up voters weary of graft in one of Latin America’s poorest nations.
Arévalo has a tough hill to climb in tamping down the perceived corruption in Guatemala. US authorities are in support of his efforts.
Early Monday morning, Arévalo was sworn in, in what could be a turning point for a nation that’s hemorrhaged migrants to the United States. He’s reaching Inauguration Day in large part because of the determination of Guatemalan citizens fed up with corruption. But U.S. diplomats played a key role, in one of the Biden administration’s most aggressive campaigns to shore up democracy in the hemisphere.
Behind the sceneswere career U.S. bureaucrats with decades of experience in Latin America — the sort of briefcase-toting professionals who melt into the crowds on the D.C. Metro. They targeted Guatemalan politicians and influential business people with a blizzard of sanctions, stern public statements and quiet arm-twisting.
With hopes high for the Arévalo administration, he has to deliver on his anti-corruption pledge, or he too may face the wrath of angry voters, but also American disfavour.