Fernando Cajas
When I say “Corrupt Pact” I am not referring to the tyrants of the time of independence from Spain. Nor am I referring to the members of the 1954 counter-revolution. For the concept of the Corrupt Pact to make sense, there must be evidence of its composition (who they are), its functioning (how it operates) and its structure (what relationships operate). The Corrupt Pact is the name given to the members, conscious or not, of criminal structures whose objective is embezzlement and illicit enrichment using public funds for their personal benefit. The term began to become common in 2015 in Guatemala.
Some roots of the Corrupt Pact are found in the democratic transition of the last century when the military, before handing over power, delegated functions to their civilian family and friends, placing them in customs and other positions, such as the Comptroller General of Accounts, CGC. With the democracy of Vinicio Cerezo also came the democratization of corruption which increased when reason and sense were given to the deputies, that is, state constructions for illicit profit. These are the fathers of the Pact of Corrupts.
Then came the decentralization of the national budget and a direct budget was granted to the municipalities. With these new decentralized resources, a social practice called corruption of municipal resources and processes emerges. When I apply for a construction license in any municipality and the municipal structure normally asks me for a “bite”, this is illicit money that can range from a few quetzales to millions of quetzales, I am not necessarily a member of the Pact. of Corrupts. The municipal structure that exists and is fueled by bribes has been co-opted by corruption. Are they part of the Corrupt Pact? Not necessarily. These groups exist and have existed within municipal structures, but I would not call them members of the Corrupt Pact. The Corrupt Pact has greater interests and is a supra structure of government management and hidden businessmen whose leaders are in the executive, legislative and judicial presidencies.
It is clear that the main visible figure of the Corrupt Pact is Alejandro Giamattei. It is clear that Congress has deputies who are part of the Corrupt Pact, but not all deputies are corrupt. The Public Ministry is co-opted, although there are many workers who oppose this structure. The University of San Carlos has been partially co-opted by the criminal structure that governs it, that is, the impostor of Rector Walter Mazariegos and some members of the Superior Council who aligned themselves to place corrupt judges in the courts. The criminal structure arranges elections, internal and external, not only those of the rector, it allows and does not allow elections in certain Academic Units in order to maintain power. The institution already has social rules, implicit social norms, that make corruption a natural activity.
When former prosecutor Thelma Aldana named the criminal structures that the Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala CICIG had found, such as La Línea, as the Pact of Corrupts, we were barely beginning to visualize the tip of the iceberg of how the institutions have transformed themselves to be able to allow corruption as an integral part of its operation. Now the Pact of Corrupts changes its tactics and reorganizes to co-opt the Supreme Electoral Tribunal TSE and displace it in such a way that corruption not only exists in a particular institution, but begins the process of usurpation of functions of public institutions and then embarks in the suppression of institutions and with this it also becomes a Pact of Terror.
When the Pact of Corrupts no longer only wants embezzlement and illicit enrichment, but also wants power, that is, total control of the institutions, it becomes a Pact of Terror. When the population says “Consuelo coup plotter, you are the terrorist” they recognize a transition from corruption to the control of democratic institutions using manipulation, fear and finally terror. It is no coincidence that the illegal raids carried out to date at the TSE have been high-profile, using personnel with heavy-caliber weapons, paramilitaries who are murderers of democracy, because their function is to sow fear to prepare the way for terror. The institutions co-opted by corruption are now totally controlled by intimidation and with that begins a process of usurpation and even elimination of democratic state spaces such as the TSE. This is the transition from the discourse of fraud to the terrorist action of control. That is, from the Pact of Corrupts to the Pact of Terror.
Terrorist movements are not foreign to us in Guatemala. We already had a civil war that left 200,000 dead just a few decades ago. Now that the transition is taking place from the use of institutions for enrichment to State control through terror and fear as key elements of social control, we truly find ourselves at a critical point. The operatives of the Corrupt Pact are now also operatives of the formation of a fascist regime that, from the State itself, organizes terrorist actions so that the fragile democracy we have is transformed into a dictatorial, repressive and undemocratic regime.
At this moment we are risking everything in Guatemala, everything. The election of Arévalo to the presidency could be the turning point towards a democratic path, respectful of the rights of Guatemalans, while the electoral fraud that was forged on the night of August 20, 2023, if consolidated, could be the implementation of a fascist regime from the Public Ministry with a legal, legalistic façade, a dictatorial regime that even those of the Corrupt Pact will regret.
The Corrupt Pact has aligned the legislative, judicial and mainly the executive branch to prevent by all means Bernardo Arévalo from being the next president of Guatemala. They no longer care, they have gone blind, they have become social psychotics who transform the Pact of Corrupts into a Pact of Terror. It is time that as a country we treat these corrupt people as corrupt, we treat these terrorists as terrorists. Let’s not allow dozens of years to return to us. Let us not allow them to kill the weak democracy that will allow us to escape underdevelopment. Let’s say no to the Pact of Corrupts and the Pact of Terror, let’s go out to the streets, write, speak, shout, but let’s not return to the years of terrorism of the last century, no.
