It was the chronicle of a death foretold. The future president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, was left without a political party today, after the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) complied with the order of the seventh judge, Fredy Orellana, to suspend the legal personality of the formation, Semilla, as a result of an investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office for alleged false signatures and signatures of people who died at the time of establishing itself as a political force in 2018. This procedure had been suspended after a resolution by the TSE that temporarily lifted the disqualification of the legal personality of the Semilla Movement until it was completed the electoral process on October 31.
In this way, the TSE suspended the decision of the director of the Citizen Registry of this organization, Ramiro Muñoz, to comply on August 28 with the court order to provisionally suspend the legal personality of Semilla, the same day on which ratified Bernardo Arévalo’s victory in the August 20 elections, after obtaining 2.4 million votes in the second round. Muñoz made this decision after Judge Orellana ordered it on July 12, after requesting it from the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity, in charge of the investigation into the political party.
However, when the results of the first round were made official, held on June 25, in which the Semilla Movement came in second place, the director of the Citizen Registry refused to comply with the court order, alleging that it went against the article 92 of the Electoral and Political Parties Law, of constitutional rank, which establishes that “a party may not be suspended after an election has been called and until it has been held.”
Likewise, the CC granted provisional protection to Semilla the next day, which stopped the judge’s order, allowing Bernardo Arévalo to run for the second round, which he ended up winning after surpassing his rival, Sandra Torres, who only obtained 1.5 million votes. After this victory, the judicial machinery was launched again to suspend the political party, although the judge’s order could not be activated until the TSE concluded the judicial process, something that happened on October 31.
It was the TSE spokesperson, Luis Gerardo Ramírez, who was in charge of reporting that this time the legal personality of Semilla has been suspended “in compliance with the order of the seventh judge and taking into account that the electoral process has ended.” Ramírez has explained that this means that the formation of Bernardo Arévalo “cannot carry out administrative procedures within the Citizen Registry” and this will directly affect the 23 deputies of this party who will take office in Congress on January 14 and the seven current deputies who will be declared independent.
During the last month, indigenous leaders and social organizations have maintained an Indefinite National Strike with blockades and demonstrations in front of the Public Ministry to demand the resignation of the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, the FECI prosecutor, Rafael Curruchiche, the FECI prosecutor. Cinthia Monterroso and Judge Fredy Orellana, all of them included in the US Engel List of corrupt and undemocratic actors.
Bernardo Arévalo himself accuses them of orchestrating a “coup d’état” against him to prevent his inauguration, although the TSE made it clear this week that the electoral results, both of the first round and the second, are “unalterable.” , for which he recalled that “all elected authorities”, including the future president, must take office on January 14 and 15, “in order to maintain justice and peace in the electoral process, ensuring the alternation in the exercise of power, the constitutional order and the democratic regime”.
Meanwhile, the indigenous authorities maintain their sit-in in front of the Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office and have called for massive walks this Friday and Saturday in the capital called the Great March for Democracy, which will reach the CC, the Supreme Court of Justice and the MP to continue to pressure, in order for the aforementioned people who are responsible for destabilizing the country and for wanting to prevent Arévalo from becoming the new president, to resign.
For his part, Bernardo Arévalo has joined several organizations to carry out Action for Democracy, with the objective of “guaranteeing respect for the final and unalterable electoral results made official by the TSE and rejecting criminalization and arbitrary persecution.” In this sense, the future president has warned that, if he is prevented from taking office, “the constitutional order will be broken,” because “it has become clear that no judge or prosecutor can modify what the people elected.” Likewise, he announced that his party is already preparing legal actions to prevent the suspension of the legal personality of the Semilla Movement.
