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
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session yesterday while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival- threatening
RSS