Between struggles with magistrates, the questioned Guatemalan prosecutor’s office seized this Saturday the minutes of the last elections in the raid of the electoral court, an operation rejected by the international community.
“We are no longer guarantors of any record. They took all the boxes with all the results,” Judge Blanca Alfaro told reporters after minutes of tension at the raided headquarters of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), in the center of the capital.
Alfaro and other magistrates opposed to the extraction of the documents struggled and argued with several police officers and prosecutors at the time the officers removed the boxes with the records, according to a Facebook transmission made by the TSE.
Magistrate Gabriel Aguilera indicated that the seized records correspond to the June elections in which the social democrat Bernardo Arévalo surprised by advancing to the presidential runoff that he won in August.
The raid began on Friday in response to complaints of alleged irregularities in the electoral process, according to prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, in charge of the operation.
“A coup d’état is being prepared”
The actions of the prosecutor’s office have been denounced by Arévalo as a “coup d’état in progress” to prevent him from taking office on January 14.
“The images we saw today, magistrates attacked and the kidnapping of the popular will are an example of the violence that the coup plotters are exercising on the people,” Arévalo said this Saturday on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
In a press conference, the vice president-elect, Karin Herrera, said she had no doubt that “the objective” of “seditious officials” behind the raids “is the annulment of the electoral results.”
Dozens of protesters with banners accompanied Herrera and elected deputies from the Semilla party to the court and then to the Constitutional Court, the highest court of justice in the country.
At the scene, Herrera presented a memorial for the body to stop the actions of the prosecution by arguing that “it is carrying out a coup against democracy.”
The complaint of a possible constitutional breach was supported this Saturday by the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro.
“A coup d’état is being prepared in Guatemala. All democratic governments in the Americas and the world must be ready to respond,” indicated the leftist ruler on the X network.
“In American territory there should not be one more coup d’état, nor one more mockery of the popular mandate. The Guatemalan prosecutor’s office is the instrument of the coup,” Petro lashed out.
A coup d’état is being prepared in Guatemala. All democratic governments in the Americas and the world must be ready to respond.
In American territory there should not be one more coup d’état, nor one more mockery of the popular mandate.
The Guatemalan prosecutor’s office is the…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) September 30, 2023
USA: “We will demand accountability”
The magistrates had asked the constitutional court to grant them protection to avoid the seizure of the original records, considering it “a violation of the democratic system” because they are the only ones empowered “to guard” the electoral documents.
They also described the raid, the fourth to be carried out at TSE headquarters, as an “intimidating act” to cast doubt on the results.
However, this Saturday the constitutional entity sent that and other requests to the Supreme Court and other lower chambers.
The Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the United States, Brian Nichols, wrote on Friday in X that his government will demand “accountability of those who participate in actions to undermine the democratic transition to the president-elect” after rejecting the prosecutor’s operation .
We condemn @MPguatemala‘s raid on @TSGuatemala. We will pursue accountability for those who participate in efforts to undermine the democratic transition to President-elect @BArevalodeLeon. Institutions must respect the will of Guatemalan voters.
— Brian A. Nichols (@WHAAsstSecty) September 30, 2023
“Institutions must respect the will of the Guatemalan people,” the US official said.
Also the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, condemned “with complete firmness” the “unacceptable raid” on the TSE. “The siege on democracy cannot continue,” he wrote this Saturday in X.
I firmly condemn the new and unacceptable raid by the FECI on the TSE in #Guatemala. The siege on democracy cannot continue. It is essential that the popular will expressed unequivocally at the polls be respected and that there be a peaceful and orderly transition.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) September 30, 2023
Meanwhile, the observation mission of the Organization of American States noted on Friday that the actions against the electoral tribunal “constitute a shameful example for the hemisphere.”
Curruchiche’s actions are supported by the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, and the raids have been authorized by Judge Fredy Orellana. All three are considered by Washington to be “corrupt” and “undemocratic.”