(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Guatemalan Update: Taking to the Streets to Fight Anti-Democratic Forces (And More) [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-14 In August, Bernando Arévalo was elected the next president of Guatemala, in what international observers have called a ‘landslide’. That is the only stable statement that can be made about the political situation in Guatemala since July. Transition Politics Even before the balloting in the second round had begun, activities by the ruling groups had begun to erode Arévalo’s chances at winning — even if he received the most votes. Efforts against Arévalo have escalated since the polling closed, including attempts to rescind his election and efforts to remove any political base he may have in the Congress should he be inaugurated in January. In the days before the election, Guatemalan officials have moved to revoke the status of Arévalo and his political party, Movimiento Semilla. In effect, quasi-legal efforts sought to remove his eligibility as a candidate for the election and the same for any member of his party to serve in Congress. Movimiento Semilla registered as a political movement in 2017 and was certified as an official political party in November 2018. To revoke this certification, the Attorney General used an allegation made in May 2022 regarding falsifying signatures as the basis for suspending Movimiento Semilla. An injunction initially paused this suspension but judge Fredy Orellana reinstated it in August. Back and forth this would go over weeks, with Shirley Rivera, the President of Congress dissolving the congressional party in September. At the start of October, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva expressed concern about actions by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (led by the Attorney General). The US State Department also noted that the “United States is gravely concerned with continued efforts to undermine Guatemala’s peaceful transition of power to President-elect Arévalo.” The Biden administration has made statements to Arévalo in support of a peaceful transition. The TSE (Tribunal Supremo Electoral or Supreme Electoral Tribunal) would reverse the suspension. Justices of the TSE, who found no fraud, physically clashed with agents from the prosecutor’s office during their proceedings. There were harrowing scenes of justices holding tight to boxes, as police tried to wrestle them away as part of raids to investigate spurious claims of voting fraud. Magistrate Mynor Franco arrives at the Constitutional Court Building in Ciudad de Guatemala on September 29th. Seventy-year-old Justice Maynor (sic) Franco, wearing a suit and tie, refused to give up his grip on a vote box, even as a much younger agent tried to wrestle it away. Saturday’s events came during the latest round of raids by 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 U.S. government for being an undemocratic actor and undermining investigations into corruption. She has denied any wrongdoing. Finally, on October 5th, the Corte de Constitucionalidad de la República de Guatemala (the Constitutional Court of Guatemala) upheld the suspension. The Limits of Disenchantment Even before all of these rulings were announced, disenchantment with the legal sector of the Guatemalan government began to manifest as open protest. From The Guardian: Street blockades that started this week grew from 14 on Monday to 58 road and highway blockages Friday. The constitutional court ruled Thursday that even though the case involves criminal accusations, prosecutors can impose measures that have electoral effects. El Incienso bridge blocked outside Ciudad de Guatemala. 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. Protesters also reacted this week to the attorney general’s office seizing vote tallies from electoral authorities. The seizure was part of the continuing investigations into accusations of voting fraud that observers say are politically motivated. Indigenous groups and rural farm workers stalled traffic on major transportation arteries over what they see as a violation of voters’ will. The protests’ main target has been the Attorney General. Such moves against the incoming leader prompted Indigenous groups and rural-dwellers – long disenfranchised in Guatemalan society – to call for an indefinite strike, which began with 14 blockades. Now two weeks into protests, the blockades have since expanded to block more than 80 roads throughout the country. Attorney General Porras responded on Monday: In a video released Monday morning, Porras described the demonstrations against her as “illegal”, and asked for authorities to forcibly clear the blocked roads and allow for the free circulation of people once again. “I want to express my complete disagreement and distaste” of the protests, she said, adding that they “clearly violate the rights of all Guatemalans.” Demonstrators block an avenue as part of a national strike to demand the resignation of authorities from the attorney general's office. Current President Alejandro Giammattei has backed his administration’s actions and has vowed to clear the country’s roadways. Giammattei, himself a tool of foreign interests, has accused the protests as being funded and advised by foreign interests. (Considering the lack of international press, this claim is laughable.) The strength of the protests has surprised the administration. At one roadblock on a major roadway in the capital, a couple dozen riot police stood in formation. There was brief pushing with some protesters, and more people quickly arrived and surrounded the outnumbered police. The roadblock remained in place. “We are requesting the appropriate arrest warrants, so that justice can be applied,” Giammattei said. He claimed protest leaders “have received support and advice from foreigners,” who he said “will also be arrested.” “Foreign money has been transferred to Guatemalan NGOs, and these funds have been used to feed and pay for portable toilets, in short all the logistics, for the blockades,” the president said. The Giammattei administration has exploited just about every international resource to be available to Guatemala, including well-intentioned efforts by US Vice President Kamala Harris. In case you are keeping track, his government has two months remaining to grab whatever else they can, in power and in money. On Tuesday, Luis Almagro, the chief of the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS) denounced the interference, calling it a "shameful example for the hemisphere." He continued, noting that the "prosecutors' office has chosen to ignore numerous calls from the international community and its behavior violates democratic norms.” (Clueless Reuters called the activities an ‘unprecedented attack on Guatemala's democracy’ (!) With the US CIA this week acknowledging illegal activity in Iran’s history, maybe they should come clean about Guatemala as well.) 13 Days Of Protest (and counting) Luis Pacheco, center, President of the K'iche' Indigenous organization “48 Cantones de Totonicapán,” listens to other authorities, outside Attorney General’s headquarters in Guatemala City, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. The “48 Cantones de Totonicapán” is an Indigenous organization that has been leading the national protests asking for the resignation of Guatemala’s Attorney General Consuelo Porras for her attempts to invalidate the recent presidential election. On October 2, protests and blockades began throughout the country to demand the resignations of the Attorney General, the head of the FECI, Rafael Curruchiche, Judge Fredy Orellana, among other officials. Various groups have aligned themselves with the blockades, including indigenous peoples, students and supporters of the democratic process. One group, the Concejo de Alcaldes Comunitarios de los 48 Cantones de Totonicapán (Council of Community Mayors of the 48 Cantons of Totonicapán), led by Luis Pacheco, eased the blockade to allow safe passage for humanitarian reasons. Their statement (translated): To guarantee the physical, psychological and economic integrity of the population , of the people who have been in transit..., those of us who are victims of a racist State incapable of resolving the most basic situations for its population (...) suggests taking the following humanitarian measures: provide safe passage for transporters, at blockade or demonstration points, The 48 Cantones de Totonicapán are also in negotiations to meet with the Attorney General this week, partially at the insistent of President Giammattei. Giammattei met with Luis Pacheco for four hours on Thursday. Giammattei made it clear that he cannot remove the Attorney General, which is one of the demands of the protests, although Pacheco has called on the Attorney General to resign. President-Elect Arévalo has also called on the Attorney General to resign. Los 48 Cantones levantarán bloqueos por algunas horas para que conductores puedan salir del territorio y llegar a sus destinos. In a Friday evening statement, Giammattei also played on the impact of the protests, fearing that the capital could run out of water. Pro-government newspapers and media sites have denounced the protestors as criminals, tying them not just to criminal activities but inhumane actions, such as blocking access to water and medical treatment. Attacks on the protesters have been sporadically reported around the capital and in other departments, including Suchitepéquez, which recorded an attack by masked armed men with high-caliber weapons. In Santa Elena Petén, near the Mundo Maya Airport, armed men arrived at the site and shot to enter the area. As of Saturday, October 14th, 45 points remain blocked throughout the country, according to the most recent update from the General Directorate of Road Protection and Safety. In the capital, at least three major routes remain blocked. And More In the title of this article, I promised “And More”. The More is the voices I have heard over the last two years. The More is the rejection of a corrupt infrastructure. The system is inherently corrupt. In any transition, the powers of the people are severely hampered by the economic structure of the country. It is not without a lot of corruption that the largest country in Central America has the poorest population. As I noted above, even the best efforts of US Vice President Harris are ultimately siphoned off to benefit the privileged groups that control the country. (Despite the protests to the Biden administration, no anti-corruption measures were included in these packages — mainly at the insistence of both the Giammattei government and the US companies who have agreed to ‘help.’) The More is the rejection of the words (quoted above) of diplomats. On the ground, the words of diplomats are lost in the reality of a corrupt infrastructure, fueled by the dominant interests inside and outside of the country. These interests seek to exploit whatever Guatemalans can contribute to their continued well-being: cheap labor, no environmental controls and access to raw materials and resources. There are no labor laws to protect the workers. There are no environmental controls to protect the land against extraction. There are no guardrails where we expect them: protecting the human rights of the people who want a different, non-exploited life. The More is a rejection of exploitation. This exploitation has, at times since 2015, led to protests and rioting. Guatemalan protests have helped remove a corrupt president (Otto Pérez Molina in 2015) and put pressure on the last and current president (as recent as 2020). But, ultimately, those efforts changed little for the people in the Departments outside of the capital. Those efforts did not allow access to health care, education, employment opportunities, economic advancement, women’s rights, LGBTQIA+ safety, and so on. The More is the demand to reject a brokered resolution to this crisis. After two weeks, the system either will crack — leading to a new constitution that includes the voice of the vast majority of the population — or the will of the people will be subverted (yet) again. It would be naive to think that President-Elect Arévalo or a good person like Luis Pacheco can break the system from within. International actors will step in to ensure that the people get very little in the end. And, after all these years, these protests are the least that could be done to change this situation. If you so choose, calling or writing your elected officials in the US may have some impact. I know that with the crisis (and the atrocities) in the Middle East dominating the news, these officials are distracted. But please note that no US inference should happen without the reinstatement — and strengthening — of formerly imposed U.N. measures on fighting corruption in Guatemala. I know this impacts US companies (who lobby all of our elected officials) but the US voice in this crisis will mean nothing if the resolution is inconsequential. Thank you for reading. Alejandro Morales [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/14/2199397/-Guatemalan-Update-Taking-to-the-Streets-to-Fight-Anti-Democratic-Forces-And-More?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/