Police from the Guatemala prosecutors’ office on Saturday scuffled with magistrates in the electoral court while seizing boxes containing tally sheets from this year’s presidential election, in a move denounced in foreign capitals.
There were scenes of justices holding tight to boxes, as police tried to wrestle them away.
Seventy-year-old magistrate Maynor Franco, wearing a suit and tie, refused to give up his grip on a vote box, even as a much younger agent tried to wrestle it away.
Photo: AFP / Guatemalan Supreme Electoral Tribunal
Magistrate Blanca Alfaro pleaded with officers not to take the boxes, because they represented the will of voters. She was shoved and briefly fell to the floor during the fracas.
“We are no longer the guarantors of any records. They took all the boxes with the results,” Alfaro told reporters moments after the chaotic scene at the Guatemalan Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).
The seized records came from the June first-round election that launched social democrat Bernardo Arevalo de Leon en route to a stunning runoff victory in August, magistrate Gabriel Aguilera said.
Arevalo has denounced the prosecutors’ efforts as a “coup d’etat in progress” aimed at keeping him from assuming power in January next year.
“The Public Ministry is continuously and systematically violating the Guatemalan legal system,” the president-elect wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, calling Saturday’s developments “an example of the violence that the coup plotters are exercising on the people.”
Guatemala and Belize the only countries in Central America to maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and Arevalo has said that he has no intention of altering the status of his country’s diplomatic relations with Taipei.
The raid began on Friday following allegations of election irregularities, said prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, who led the operation.
However, election observers said they saw no evidence of voting fraud.
The raid drew condemnation from the US, EU and the Organization of American States.
“We will pursue accountability for those who participate in efforts to undermine the democratic transition to President-elect @BArevalodeLeon,” US Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols wrote on X.
Also on X, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell denounced the raid as “unacceptable,” adding: “The siege on democracy cannot continue.”
An Organization of American States observer mission decried the raid as “shameful.”
The electoral judges had asked Guatemala’s highest court to grant protection against seizure of the records, which they said would be “a violation of the democratic system.”
They described the raid — the fourth carried out at TSE headquarters — as an “intimidating act” designed to cast doubt on the results.
Curruchiche’s actions have been backed by Guatemalan Attorney General Consuelo Porras and authorized by Judge Fredy Orellana.
All three have been described as “corrupt” and “undemocratic” by Washington officials.
Additional reporting by staff writer and AP
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