Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office proposes annulling elections and the OAS warns of an “attempted coup”

Guatemalan prosecutors once again attacked the results of the past general elections and asked a court to withdraw the immunity of President-elect Bernardo Arévalo, pointing out that there could be enough irregularities to annul the electoral results, a measure that the Organization of American States condemned as “an attempted coup” in the Central American nation.

At a press conference, the president-elect described the actions of the Prosecutor’s Office as “spurious accusations” and pointed out that they sought to undermine possible governability, “a blow to the heart of our democracy,” he declared.

It is the third request of this type that the Prosecutor’s Office has made since Arévalo won the elections in August. The president-elect is scheduled to take office on Jan. 14, although it was unclear whether prosecutors’ continued attacks on him and his party could interfere with the inauguration.

On Friday at a press conference, the prosecutor’s office took another step in the attack on the electoral process, denouncing that there had been alleged irregularities in some minutes that recorded the results of the electionswhich, he said, could lead to their cancellation.

He Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) He responded almost immediately by pointing out that the electoral results are unalterable.

Arévalo said that the attorney general Consuelo Porras, the prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche and the general secretary of the institution Ángel Pineda are coup plotters “corrupt, authoritarian, they tried to interfere in the elections” and reiterated that “we have won the elections and we will take office on January 14 ”.

“They want us to trust what they say when they forcibly entered the electoral Tribunal to steal the minutes (which recorded the results of the elections)”, and stressed that this was a “absurd, ridiculous and perverse coup d’état”.

The political crisis he is experiencing Guatemala attracted the attention of six US congressmen visiting the country for two days.

At a press conference, Senator Tim Kaine, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that “we are going to do anything to support the will of the Guatemalan people not only today (but) in the months and years to come.”

Kaine considered that the moment the country is experiencing is one of opportunity but also danger. “We are looking at a coup d’état, we have been reading, listening and talking to people in recent weeks, but today with the actions (of the Prosecutor’s Office) that we are looking at seems a moment of great danger, great danger for Guatemala and the town”.

“The results are validated, made official and the people (who won their positions) are duly accredited and must take office on January 14, otherwise there will be a breach of the constitutional order,” warned the presiding magistrate of that body, Blanca Alfaro.

The prosecutor’s office announced the results of its investigation against the Semilla Movement, the party that led to the presidency being won by Arevalo and said that he requested the withdrawal of his immunity to investigate him for the alleged falsification of documents in the Semilla constitution because he was aware of the forgery of signatures when the political force was created.

He Public ministry He also seeks to have him removed from office to investigate him for money laundering, allegedly by not registering income to the party.

The prosecution also requested two actions to withdraw the immunity of deputy Samuel Pérez, head of the party’s bench, under the same accusations.

The prosecutor Leonor Eugenia Morales who is investigating the case said that some illegalities are lack of coincidences in some minutes used because they are not the same formats approved by the electoral magistrates, these are the minutes that recorded the results of the president, vice president, mayors, deputies and deputies to the Central American Parliament, which he said are “null in law.”

Curruchiche, head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Impunity, said that the highest electoral body is the one that must resolve the situation on the issue. “Here all political parties and all candidates in all elections were affected. It will then be the Supreme Electoral Tribunal that will make the decision in this regard,” Curruchiche explained.

At the press conference, Pineda also attacked the international community that has expressed concern about the prosecution’s judicialization of the electoral process.

“We have rejected and will always vigorously reject any abusive insinuation through the interference of foreign entities or persons that have the illegal purpose of stopping investigating the crimes that by legal mandate we are obliged to clarify,” said Pineda, who has been sanctioned. by the US government for undermining Guatemalan democracy and obstructing the fight against corruption.

For his part, the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, condemned in a statement what he described as an “attempted coup d’état by the Public Ministry of Guatemala”.

“The actions and statements of prosecutors Rafael Curruchiche and Leonor Morales constitute an alteration of the constitutional order of the country, a breach of the rule of law and a violation of the human rights of the population,” he added.

With these two actions, there are three requests to withdraw Arévalo’s immunity. The first was due to the publication of messages on the social network X, formerly called Twitter, in which he supported the takeover of a university by students protesting the election of the rector.

The Prosecutor’s Office maintains an attack against the electoral process, Arévalo and the Semilla Movement, as well as against some 150,000 citizens who received, counted and safeguarded the votes of the general elections.

Several governments have joined in rejecting the actions of the prosecutor’s office. Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that “We are facing a coup d’état in Guatemala. The OAS must act immediately. All support to the Guatemalan people. “A prosecutor’s office that has covered up drug trafficking and corruption acts against democracy,” he said in his “X” account.

The Spanish government said in a press release that it rejects the actions of the Public ministry of Guatemala that “attack democracy and represent a serious violation of the will of the Guatemalan people.”

For its part, the business sector organized in the Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial and Financial Associations said in a press release that the electoral results must be respected to ensure democracy.