Hundreds of people on Monday blocked key roads to demand the resignation of top prosecutors, whom they accuse of trying to block the newly elected president from taking office.
Guatemalan Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche on Friday and Saturday sent security forces to seize boxes of voting records from this year’s presidential election, won by Bernardo Arevalo, 64.
Observers say that Arevalo’s vow to clamp down on graft has alarmed a corrupt elite.
Photo: AFP
Arevalo is due to take office in January next year and the international community has raised the alarm over efforts to challenge the election outcome.
Protesters on Monday blocked key highways such as the Inter-American Highway and routes leading to the borders of Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras, transportation authorities said.
“Guatemala demands the respect of its democracy,” a sign held by protesters read.
Photo: Reuters
Others demanded the resignation of Curruchiche, Attorney General Consuelo Porras and Judge Fredy Orellana, who have backed several raids against electoral authorities.
All three officials have been described as “corrupt” and “undemocratic” by the US Department of Justice.
Arevalo has asked the Guatemalan Supreme Court to remove them from their roles, accusing them of plotting a “coup d’etat” to prevent him from taking office.
The president-elect wrote on social media on Monday that he had held a video call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who expressed “his country’s concern about the situation in Guatemala.”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Sunday said that the raid was “the latest in a long list of very worrying actions ... which — taken together — appear designed to undermine the integrity of the electoral process.”
The seized records came from the June first-round election that put Social Democrat Arevalo en route to a runoff victory in August, magistrate Gabriel Aguilera said.
His performance in that vote prompted a flurry of legal actions against his Semilla party, led by Curruchiche, who alleged irregularities in its formation in 2017.
Arevalo is to replace Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, who has been accused by rights groups of overseeing a crackdown on anti-graft prosecutors and journalists, many of whom have been detained or forced to flee into exile.
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