América Bernardo Arévalo recovers his party in Guatemala after a resolution of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal

The political situation in Guatemala is increasingly entangled with judicial decisions and against resolutions that add uncertainty to the population. While thousands of people demonstrated this Saturday in Guatemala City in defense of democracy and against the “Coup d’état” denounced by the president-elect, Bernardo Arévalo, the Plenary of Magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) decided to suspend the provisional suspension of the legal personality of the Seed Movement until the electoral process concludes on October 31. Therefore, Arévalo once again recovers the political formation with which he swept the elections on August 20, after receiving 2.4 million votes, 20 points more than his rival, Sandra Torres, who still does not recognize the results.

Precisely, on the day that the resounding victory of Bernardo Arévalo became official, on August 28, the director of the TSE Citizens Registry, Ramiro Muñoz, resolved to provisionally suspend the legal status of the Seed Movement, leaving the president-elect orphaned by a political party just a few months after he assumes power on January 14, 2024.

All this as a result of the Seventh Court judge, Fredy Orellana, ordering on July 12 the Registry of Citizens of the TSE to suspend that political formation, as requested by the prosecutor of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI), Rafael Curruchiche, in the framework of an investigation, according to which Semilla had allegedly falsified the signature of more than 300 affiliates and even 18 people who have already died to be incorporated in 2017. At first, he spoke of more than 5,000 signatures, if Well then he reduced this figure to more than 300.

At that time, the Constitutional Court (CC) prevented this measure, after granting a provisional protection to Semilla, allowing Bernardo Arévalo to run for the second round, after he had finished second in the first round of the elections. held on June 25.

In addition, the director of the Citizens’ Registry had also opposed at that time complying with the court order, arguing that the Electoral and Political Parties Law establishes that “a political force may not be suspended after an election has been called and until it has been celebrated”.

On August 28, he changed his mind and decided to suspend the political force led by Bernardo Arévalo, despite the fact that the president of the TSE, Irma Palencia, had made it very clear that same day that the electoral process would not end until October 31. For this reason, this institution amended the plan this Saturday by leaving without effect until that date the resolution of the director of the Citizens’ Registry, who is an official of the Court itself.

Now it is unknown what is going to happen with the seven deputies of the Seed Movement in Congress who have been ignored by the Board of Directors of the Legislative Chamber that declared them independent last Wednesday, including Bernardo Arévalo himself, who occupies a seat. This decision also affects the 23 deputies of this group who will take office on January 14, 2024 and who will not be able to constitute any group in Congress made up of 160 legislators.

In its resolution, the TSE exhorts the three powers of the state so that, in accordance with the law, they “continue to ensure respect for the popular will expressed at the polls, the integrity, purity, and effectiveness of the electoral process, as well as how to guarantee the alternation of power through the execution and due fulfillment of the agreements and provisions issued by this Court to guarantee democracy and the rule of law”.

Precisely, Bernardo Arévalo denounced this Friday a “Coup d’état promoted by the institutions that should guarantee justice”, headed by “the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, the head of the FECI, Rafael Curruchiche, the seventh judge, Fredy Orellana, the Board of Directors of Congress and other corrupt and undemocratic actors” whom he accuses of having launched a plan to “break the constitutional order and violate democracy and the will of the people.”

After calling on the population to peacefully defend democracy and the will emitted at the polls, thousands of people demonstrated this Saturday in the Plaza de la Constitución in Guatemala City, the same place where the mass protests of 2015 against the corruption, which put an end to the government of then-President Otto Pérez Molina, in pretrial detention since September of that year for various cases of corruption.

‘No to the coup, yes to democracy’ and ‘My vote is respected’, were some of the slogans on the banners carried by the protesters who took to the streets, despite the heavy rain that fell throughout the day. One of them was Claudia Torres, who stressed that she had decided to protest to “demand that our voice be respected, because the people have already voted and elected.” For this reason, she said that the “fight” now is to “prevent a coup d’etat” and that the authorities see that the population is “defending their vote.”

Torres is clear that there is animosity against Bernardo Arévalo for his promise to fight corruption, given that “these criminals want to continue robbing the people of Guatemala and not lose that goose that lays the golden eggs.” In this sense, he pointed out that the president-elect represents the “hope that Guatemala will change and there will be a better country after the previous governments left us in debt for generations.”

The same day that thousands of people demanded the resignation of the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, and the head of the FECI, the Public Ministry issued a statement contradicting Bernardo Arévalo, assuring that it is “totally false that the Prosecutor’s Office is forming part of a coup d’état process as the president-elect has irresponsibly pointed out”.

Thus, he denounced that this narrative and “disinformation campaign” has the purpose of “generating destabilization in the country and interrupting the constitutional period in the exercise of the position of the attorney general” to “stop the ongoing investigations into the complaints of more than 5,000 false signatures and 18 deceased people for the constitution of the Seed Movement”.

Meanwhile, this Monday the first meeting between the current president, Alejandro Giammattei, and the elected president, Bernardo Arévalo, is scheduled to begin the transfer of power. The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), who will attend the meeting invited by Giammattei himself, has stressed that it is “essential to reach January 14 in peace and without suffering further prosecution.”