Guatemalan Indigenous Peoples to Defend Arevalo’s Inauguration

January 12, 2024 Hour: 1:30 pm

On Friday, Indigenous organizations called for a massive march in response to the threats of a coup d’état through which Attorney General Consuelo Porras intends to prevent the inauguration of Bernardo Arevalo as Guatemala’s president on Sunday.

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Previously, on Thursday, the Guatemalan Supreme Court ruled against the arrest of Vice President-elect Karin Herrera and four judges of the Electoral Court.

This happened amid rumors that Attorney General Consuelo Porras intends to make these arrests, which would hinder the inauguration of the new president.

Since Arevalo came second in the first round of the elections in June 2023 and won the runoff by a landslide two months later, the Prosecutor’s Office has sought to establish court cases to prevent the new authorities from taking office.

Episode 3 takes us to a memorial for the disappeared in San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala. @mfox_us retreads the history of U.S. support for the brutal genocide against Indigenous peoples in the name of fighting the so-called “communist threat.”
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— NACLA Report (@NACLA)
January 9, 2024

The Seed Movement and other progressive political and social organizations have described this “lawfare” as an “attempted coup d’état.” This week, the Vice President-elect Herrera requested legal protection to avoid her arrest.

On Thursday, the Prosecutor’s Office achieved the arrest of former Interior Minister Napoleon Barrientos, whom Porras accuses of not complying with a ruling that ordered him to repress citizens in the protests that proliferated in the country during the second half of 2023.

During that period, thousands of Guatemalans took to the streets and highways to demand the dismissal of Attorney General Porras.

The U.S. Deputy Secretary of the State Department assured that Porras’ actions against the Seed Movement and electoral judges will fail because “they have no real legal basis.”

#FromTheSouth News Bits | Guatemala gave details of activities and agenda for the government transition between Alejandro Giammattei and Bernardo Arevalo. pic.twitter.com/xUeoT3gIl8

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish)
December 20, 2023