What’s behind efforts to strip Guatemala’s president-elect of his immunity?
1 year, 1 month ago

What’s behind efforts to strip Guatemala’s president-elect of his immunity?

Al Jazeera  

Critics fear President-elect Bernardo Arevalo could be blocked from taking office amid a probe into university protests. “We clearly establish that there is a timeline in which the university is a political looting,” Sanchez said, projecting images onscreen of Herrera attending a protest and Arevalo speaking on the video platform, TikTok. The recent arrest warrants, raids and public accusations indicate that the Public Ministry — helmed by Attorney General Porras — is willing to forge ahead regardless of Guatemala’s immunity law, he explained. An international crisis The question of whether the Public Ministry will succeed in lifting Arevalo’s immunity is one that could have massive implications for Guatemala’s democracy — and stability across Central America. Already, members of the US State Department have slammed Guatemala’s Public Ministry, calling its attempt to strip Arevalo of his immunity a “malign request”.

Social Media Legal Political University Case Public Herrera Strip Sanchez Guatemala Immunity Guatemalan Central America Usac Arevalo Samayoa Mendez Dardon Bernardo Arevalo His Immunity  presidentelect  strip  university  arevalo  sanchez  public  guatemalas  case  legal  whats  guatemala  immunity  political  efforts

History of this topic

Guatemala’s new president appeals for society’s help to overcome entrenched powers
10 months, 3 weeks ago

Guatemala’s new president appeals for society’s help to overcome entrenched powers

Associated Press  

GUATEMALA CITY — President Bernardo Arévalo said Thursday that with his political party suspended, little support in congress and an attorney general in hot pursuit, he will appeal to the Guatemalan people to help him overcome the entrenched old guard and achieve the change he campaigned on. Sanctioned by the U.S. government for allegedly undermining Guatemala’s democracy, Porras has used …

Guatemala’s embattled attorney general says she will not step down
10 months, 4 weeks ago

Guatemala’s embattled attorney general says she will not step down

Associated Press  

GUATEMALA CITY — The Guatemala attorney general leading efforts to prosecute President Bernardo Arévalo and his party refused to step down Wednesday ahead of a meeting with the president. “I am not going to resign,” said Consuelo Porras in a recorded video message released by her office on the same day that Arévalo said he would ask her to step …

U.S. bars ex-Guatemala president from entry, three days after he left office
11 months, 1 week ago

U.S. bars ex-Guatemala president from entry, three days after he left office

LA Times  

The State Department barred former Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei from entry into the U.S., citing “significant corruption.” The U.S. State Department barred former Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei from entry into the United States on Wednesday — three days after he left office — citing “significant corruption.” The Biden administration had become increasingly critical of Giammattei’s administration as Guatemalan prosecutors pursued …

Bernardo Arévalo sworn in as Guatemala's President despite months of efforts to derail inauguration
11 months, 1 week ago

Bernardo Arévalo sworn in as Guatemala's President despite months of efforts to derail inauguration

The Hindu  

Bernardo Arévalo was sworn in as Guatemala’s President on January 15 minutes after midnight despite months of efforts to derail his inauguration, including foot-dragging and rising tensions right up until the transfer of power. But nothing has been straightforward since with Attorney General Consuelo Porras and the establishment forces observers say she represents throwing one legal challenge after another at …

Presidency beckons for Arevalo in Guatemala
11 months, 1 week ago

Presidency beckons for Arevalo in Guatemala

The Hindu  

Bernardo Arevalo has survived months of judicial machinations to stop his inauguration on Sunday as Guatemala’s new President — the target, according to himself and observers, of a corrupt elite desperate to cling to power. Since his surprise victory in elections last August, political outsider Mr. Arevalo has had to overcome a string of obstacles placed in his way by …

International bodies reject moves to block Guatemala president-elect from taking office
1 year ago

International bodies reject moves to block Guatemala president-elect from taking office

Associated Press  

GUATEMALA CITY — International and regional leaders have rejected the latest attempt by Guatemalan prosecutors to prevent progressive President-elect Bernardo Arévalo from taking office on Jan. 14. “Friday’s announcements, aimed at nullifying the outcome of the general elections and questioning the constitution and existence of the Movimiento Semilla party, are extremely disturbing,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk …

UN raises alarm on attempts to annul Guatemala’s general election results
1 year ago

UN raises alarm on attempts to annul Guatemala’s general election results

Al Jazeera  

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights deplored “persistent and systematic” attempts to undermine the outcome of Guatemala’s elections and called for the will of voters to be upheld, after public prosecutors moved to overturn President-elect Bernardo Arevalo’s victory. On Saturday, Volker Turk, The UN’s human rights chief, noted that “Friday’s announcements, aimed at nullifying the outcome of the …

Prosecutors in Guatemala ask court to lift president-elect’s immunity
1 year ago

Prosecutors in Guatemala ask court to lift president-elect’s immunity

LA Times  

President-elect Bernardo Arévalo leads a march in Guatemala City on Thursday in protest of government interference in the election he won in August. Prosecutors in Guatemala on Friday asked a court to strip President-elect Bernardo Arévalo of his immunity, saying there could be enough irregularities to annul the election results, a move that the Organization of American States called part …

Guatemala prosecutors threaten to annul victory of President-elect Arevalo
1 year ago

Guatemala prosecutors threaten to annul victory of President-elect Arevalo

Al Jazeera  

Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal has declared the results of this year’s presidential race “unalterable” after public prosecutors openly questioned whether to annul the vote. The prosecutors’ statements sparked a domestic and international firestorm, marking what critics consider the latest — and most directly stated — effort to overturn President-elect Bernardo Arevalo’s election victory. “The attempt to annul this year’s general …

Guatemalan electoral magistrates leave the country hours after losing immunity from prosecution
1 year ago

Guatemalan electoral magistrates leave the country hours after losing immunity from prosecution

LA Times  

Bernardo Arévalo of the progressive Seed Movement party was the surprise winner of Guatemala’s presidential election in August. Three magistrates of Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal left the country in the hours after the country’s Congress opened them to prosecution by stripping them of their immunity as the losing side in the presidential election continued its efforts to interfere with the …

Guatemalan prosecutors request that President-elect Bernardo Arévalo be stripped of immunity
1 year, 1 month ago

Guatemalan prosecutors request that President-elect Bernardo Arévalo be stripped of immunity

Associated Press  

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala’s Attorney General’s office formally requested Friday that President-elect Bernardo Arévalo and others be stripped of their immunity so it can investigate them for allegedly encouraging the student occupation of the country’s only public university. Cultural Heritage prosecutor Ángel Saúl Sánchez had announced on Thursday that he planned to make the request while federal agents executed search …

Guatemalan prosecutors pursue president-elect and student protesters over campus takeover
1 year, 1 month ago

Guatemalan prosecutors pursue president-elect and student protesters over campus takeover

Associated Press  

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalan prosecutors said Thursday they will seek to strip President-elect Bernardo Arévalo and several members of his party of their immunity for allegedly making social media posts that encouraged students to take over a public university in 2022. In the case announced Thursday, one of the examples given in prosecutors’ documents is a message in which Arévalo …

Guatemala’s president-elect is hopeful about assuming office despite obstacles
1 year, 1 month ago

Guatemala’s president-elect is hopeful about assuming office despite obstacles

LA Times  

Bernardo Arévalo won Guatemala’s presidential runoff election in August, but his battle to become president hasn’t let up. Despite ongoing hostility toward his ascendance, “the inauguration on Jan. 14 is inevitable,” Arévalo said last week during a visit to Washington, where he met with Biden administration officials and members of the U.S. Congress and the Guatemalan diaspora. A center-left politician, …

Guatemalans have taken to the streets. All they want: For their president-elect to take office
1 year, 2 months ago

Guatemalans have taken to the streets. All they want: For their president-elect to take office

LA Times  

Before Guatemala’s presidential election, candidate Bernardo Arévalo didn’t think he had much of a chance. Guatemala’s President-elect Bernardo Arévalo was “one of the serious ones” in high school, according to a former classmate. Arévalo always remained “extremely calm” and “would never fall into a person’s reaction,” said Renée Lariviere, Interpeace’s senior director of programs. Chipi Villatoro, who had played music …

Indigenous leader of Guatemalan protests says they are defending democracy after election
1 year, 2 months ago

Indigenous leader of Guatemalan protests says they are defending democracy after election

Associated Press  

GUATEMALA CITY — One of the leaders of the nationwide protests against efforts to undermine Guatemala’s elections that have paralyzed much of the country’s commerce for nearly two weeks is a young one-time law student who now heads up one of the country’s most important Indigenous organizations. While Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei tries to draw President-elect Bernardo Arévalo into a …

Guatemala’s highest court says prosecutors can suspend president-elect’s party
1 year, 2 months ago

Guatemala’s highest court says prosecutors can suspend president-elect’s party

LA Times  

Thousands of people blocked highways across Guatemala this week in reaction to the attorney general’s office seizing vote tallies from electoral authorities. Guatemala’s highest court has upheld a move by prosecutors to suspend the political party of President-elect Bernardo Arévalo over alleged voter and registration fraud, a move the incoming leader denounces as a “coup.” Arévalo and electoral authorities had …

OAS says legal actions in Guatemala appear aimed at keeping president-elect from taking power
1 year, 3 months ago

OAS says legal actions in Guatemala appear aimed at keeping president-elect from taking power

Associated Press  

GUATEMALA CITY — The head of the Organization of American States’ election observation mission said Friday that the actions taken by Guatemala’s justice system against the Seed Movement party of President-elect Bernardo Arévalo appear to be aimed at preventing him from taking power. But in summarizing the various legal actions taken by the Attorney General’s Office against the Seed Movement, …

Guatemala’s president-elect faces legal challenges that seek to weaken him. Here’s what’s happening
1 year, 3 months ago

Guatemala’s president-elect faces legal challenges that seek to weaken him. Here’s what’s happening

Associated Press  

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala’s Aug. 20 presidential election has been bogged down in court and legal challenges despite the fact the results were clear: Progressive candidate Bernardo Arévalo won about 61% of the vote to conservative Sandra Torres’ 39%. And the attorney general’s office raided the headquarters of the country’s electoral authority hours after it certified the results of the …

Opinion: Guatemala chose a new pro-reform president. Can he stem corruption and migration?
1 year, 3 months ago

Opinion: Guatemala chose a new pro-reform president. Can he stem corruption and migration?

LA Times  

Bernardo Arévalo, a 64-year-old sociologist and reformer, did the seemingly impossible this week. Arévalo’s landslide victory — delivered by young and middle-class voters fed up with endless government dysfunction — is a watershed for Central America’s most populous nation. Guatemalans still remember his father, the late President Juan José Arévalo, for having ushered in a “democratic spring” before a 1954 …

What challenges lie ahead for Guatemala’s President-elect Arevalo?
1 year, 3 months ago

What challenges lie ahead for Guatemala’s President-elect Arevalo?

Al Jazeera  

The conservative National Unity of Peace party has filed a complaint alleging inconsistencies in the August 20 election. “But he faces a great challenge.” Underdog turned frontrunner When he is sworn into office on January 14, Arevalo will become Guatemala’s first progressive president in seven decades, breaking a streak of right-wing governments. “Arevalo’s victory was a referendum on the ruling …

OAS human rights body demands protection for apparent Guatemalan election winner amid plot rumors
1 year, 3 months ago

OAS human rights body demands protection for apparent Guatemalan election winner amid plot rumors

Associated Press  

GUATEMALA CITY — The Organization of American States’ human rights commission asked Thursday that Guatemala provide protection for Bernardo Arévalo, the winner of the country’s Aug. 20 elections, after reports emerged of a possible plot to kill him. The commission said in a statement Thursday that there were reports of “at least one” plan to harm or kill Arévalo and …

Biden administration warns Guatemala against rejecting democracy in presidential election
1 year, 4 months ago

Biden administration warns Guatemala against rejecting democracy in presidential election

LA Times  

Supporters wait for Sandra Torres, presidential candidate of the UNE party, during a campaign rally in Chimaltenango, Guatemala, on Sunday. Biden administration officials are working intently to prevent the Guatemalan government, one of their few allies in Central America, from overturning election results that put a leftist in next week’s presidential runoff — to the dismay of right-wing elites in …

Guatemala presidential election: Unraveling the final candidates’ platforms
1 year, 4 months ago

Guatemala presidential election: Unraveling the final candidates’ platforms

Al Jazeera  

Progressive candidate Bernardo Arevalo will face off against conservative Sandra Torres in an August 20 run-off vote. Voters are set to choose between Congressman Bernardo Arevalo of the progressive Seed Movement and Sandra Torres, a former first lady representing the conservative National Unity of Hope party. But the public prosecutor’s office has continued to conduct office raids targeting the Seed …

Guatemala police raid office of Semilla presidential candidate
1 year, 5 months ago

Guatemala police raid office of Semilla presidential candidate

Al Jazeera  

Guatemala is on edge as the attorney general’s office targets one of the two leading parties in the presidential race. Guatemalan police have raided the offices of the progressive Movimiento Semilla or Seed Movement, a political party whose presidential candidate Bernardo Arevalo defied expectations to advance to the second round of the country’s upcoming elections. In the wake of Friday’s …

US sanctions Guatemalan officials over ‘undemocratic’ activity
1 year, 5 months ago

US sanctions Guatemalan officials over ‘undemocratic’ activity

Al Jazeera  

The United States government has slapped sanctions on 10 Guatemalan officials, including several accused of undermining democracy and targeting journalists, as the country contends with an ongoing electoral crisis. An election in crisis The report amplifies existing concerns over Guatemala’s fragile democracy, which has faced scrutiny in recent weeks as the country prepares for the second round of voting in …

Guatemala’s former anti-corruption prosecutor faces arrest
3 years, 3 months ago

Guatemala’s former anti-corruption prosecutor faces arrest

Associated Press  

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalan officials confirmed Friday they are trying to arrest a fired anti-corruption prosecutor whose ouster led the United States to reduce cooperation with the Central American nation’s legal system. The arrest warrant for Juan Francisco Sandoval was confirmed by the spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, Juan Luis Pantaleón, a day after Attorney General Consuelo Porras said on …

US sanctions Guatemala officials ahead of Harris meeting
3 years, 7 months ago

US sanctions Guatemala officials ahead of Harris meeting

Al Jazeera  

The US sanctions target a member of Guatemala’s Congress and a former presidential chief of staff over alleged corruption. In a statement, the US Department of the Treasury said it had blacklisted Felipe Alejos Lorenzana, an elected delegate in Guatemala’s Congress, and Gustavo Adolfo Alejos Cambara, who was chief of staff under former President Alvaro Colom. A senior US official …

Discover Related