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Guatemala: A 'Corrupt Pact That Has This Country On The Precipice' [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-07-13
Movimiento Semilla is out. Their candidate for President, Bernardo Arévalo, is not eligible to compete in the August 20th run-off election. And the corruption continues…. Hours later, are they back in?
What has happened in the last two weeks in the Guatemalan presidential election has rivaled some of the most turbulent elections in the last fifty years.
The Review
As I reported last week, a number of political parties, including that of front-runner Sandra Torres, raised objections to the June 25th election. By law, the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE) began to review the results in the 24 election boards. Under public scrutiny, the process was to completed by reviewing ballots against time stamps. 12 were completed by July 4th and the remaining ones finished by the end of the week. Notably, the count for Arévalo and other Movimiento Semilla increased.
Even on a weekend that featured a huge national distraction: the Guatemala national football team (Selección de fútbol de Guatemala) playing in the quarterfinals of the Copa Oro (Gold Cup) series being played in Cincinnati, talk about the election situation increased. Several commentators remarked on the increased increase amongst young people who are refusing to accept the open abuse of the political system.
Bernardo Arévalo stayed calm. He is the son of a statesman. He is a diplomat. He is a person of integrity. He also recognizes that the histrionics exuded by many politicians, including current Guatemalan president Alejandro Giammattei (who famously campaigned on jailing his opponent when he was running against Sandra Torres in 2019), that can gain him no advantage in the process or the polling.
On Wednesday, the TSE, legally the ultimate arbiter in electoral matters, upheld the results of the first-round vote.
The Prosecutor
Followers of Guatemalan politics will recognize Rafael Curruchiche. He is the head of the Fiscalía Especial Contra la Impunidad (FECI) (the main Special Prosecutor agency) who has been sanctioned by the U.S. State Department under Section 353 Corrupt and Undemocratic Actors Report:
Jose Rafael Curruchiche Cacul (Rafael Curruchiche), the current chief of the Public Ministry’s Office of the Special Prosecutor Against Impunity (FECI), obstructed investigations into acts of corruption by disrupting high-profile corruption cases against government officials and raising apparently spurious claims against FECI prosecutors, private attorneys, and former International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) prosecutors.
Helicopters today over Ciudad Capital…. “Excesivos movimientos de helicópteros en la Ciudad de Guatemala.”
The CICIG, as reported here previously, was the U.N. commission set up to tackle widespread corruption. The actions of corrupt politicians from U.S. Senator Marco Rubio to then-Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales conspired to get the commission kicked out of the country. You can see a list of other Guatemalan politicians, judges and business leaders sanctioned by the U.S. State Department here.
Yesterday evening, Curruchiche announced that the legal status of Movimiento Semilla was suspended as a result of an investigation into supposed irregularities in the collection of signatures when the party was founded. (Movimiento Semilla was founded in 2018.)
The Guardian reported:
“There are indications that more than 5,000 citizens were illegally signed up to the Seed Movement [Movimiento Semilla] by having their writing and signatures forged,” Curruchiche said. Hours later, on Thursday morning, officials from the attorney general’s office raided the offices of the supreme electoral court, causing further alarm over the future of the election.
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