Bernardo Arevalo

Guatemala’s Attorney General Consuelo Porras has asked the Constitutional Court (CC) to allow her to criminally prosecute President Bernardo Arévalo for allegedly taking political and financial measures against the institution she heads.

Porras also believes that, with the criticisms that Arévalo and other government officials make of her management, she is promoting violence against her and officials of her institution, and attacks against her physical integrity and against her life; however, there are no reports that something like this has occurred. The prosecutor formed a group of armed guards to supposedly protect her and the institution.

Porras’ new action comes after the government reported that the prosecutor’s office seized the electoral register containing sensitive data on nearly 10 million Guatemalans eligible to vote, including name, address, telephone number and political affiliation.

The prosecutor and several of her employees maintain a constant affront against Arévalo and his government that began from the moment he was recognized as one of the two candidates who would compete for the presidency in 2023, and which Arévalo finally won in the elections.

Since then, the prosecution has raided polling stations, filed requests to remove immunity from electoral magistrates and the president himself, as well as taken action against members of the political party Movimiento Semilla with which Arévalo won the presidency. It has also taken action against electoral workers and some 150,000 citizens who participated in the polling stations receiving, safeguarding and counting the votes, on various charges, including alleged fraud.

Arévalo has denounced that the attorney general refuses to investigate acts of the administration of former President Alejandro Giammattei, who appointed Porras to the post. The government has filed more than 100 complaints against the previous government for corruption.

In response to the prosecutor’s actions, Arévalo also asked Congress to modify the law to allow him to remove her from office. Porras has been sanctioned by at least 40 countries that accuse her of obstructing the fight against corruption and undermining democracy in the country. The prosecutor has refuted the accusations.

Last week, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights visited the country and recommended an in-depth independent review of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and offered its technical support in response to allegations of criminalization of justice operators, judges, prosecutors, human rights defenders and journalists.

GuatemalaA Guatemalan decide on Tuesday froze the financial institution accounts of President Bernardo Arévalo’s Semilla get together, as a consequence of an investigation into alleged cash laundering that the prosecutor’s workplace opened in 2023 and that put his investiture in danger in January.

Decide Freddy Orellana, on the request of the prosecution, “approved the freezing of the accounts” of Semilla, a social-democratic get together suspended since final yr by order of the identical Justice of the Peace, the Public Prosecutor’s Workplace mentioned in a press release.

Each Orellana and the heads of the controversial Guatemalan prosecutor’s workplace are beneath sanctions by the USA and the European Union, who accuse them of undermining democracy.

The prosecution initiated proceedings in opposition to Semilla and Arévalo for alleged irregularities within the creation of the get together in 2017, which in January put the investiture of the present president in jeopardy.

For his half, the president accuses the legal professional basic, Consuelo Porras, of obstructing his struggle in opposition to deep-rooted corruption in Guatemala, a marketing campaign promise that led him to win the elections final August.

Arévalo tried to take away Porras, however he lacks the authority to take action. In Could, he submitted a invoice to the opposition-dominated Congress to reform the natural regulation of the Public Prosecutor’s Workplace, however the mission didn’t advance.

Till 2018, Guatemalan presidents had the facility to take away an legal professional basic, however at the moment he can solely be eliminated if he’s convicted.

In the meantime, the legal professional basic, whose time period expires in 2026, maintains a dozen expenses in opposition to the president with the intention of eradicating his immunity and eradicating him from energy.