Guatemala’s farmers maintain road blockade for third consecutive day

Guatemala City, Oct 4 (EFE).- Hundreds of Guatemalan farmers are blocking the country’s main highways for the third consecutive day on Wednesday to demand attorney general Consuelo Porras’s resignation for judicial intervention against the general elections’ results.

The protesters have taken 14 highways, most located in the departments of Sololá, Quiché, Chimaltenango, and Quetzaltenango, northwest of Guatemala.

Amidst the fog, dozens of farmers began the third day of demonstrations with a prayer at Cuatro Caminos highway in Totonicapán. They announced that they would not leave until their demands were met.

Since October 2, different indigenous and social organizations began protests because the Public Prosecutor’s Office seized dozens of boxes with the results of the general elections.

The protestors accuse Porras and the Attorney General’s Office of seeking to give “a coup d’état” to the elected president, Bernardo Arévalo, who won the ballot on August 20 with 2.5 million votes in his favor.

SIT-IN AT THE PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE

As part of the protest, at least 200 indigenous leaders have stayed overnight for two consecutive nights in front of the Attorney General’s Office headquarters in Guatemala City as a measure of pressure.

Due to this sit-in, the Attorney General’s Office reacted by limiting the attention of complaints in its facilities and rejecting the expressions of the population against its leaders.

This Wednesday, various student and indigenous organizations called for demonstrations in the country’s main cities and to maintain the indefinite blockade.

The Prosecutor’s Office, led by Consuelo Porras, has tried since last July 12 to reverse the electoral results by eliminating the party Seed Movement of Arévalo for an alleged case of false signatures during its foundation in 2018.

At the end of September, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, asked the Prosecutor General’s Office to stop the persecution against Arévalo for considering its investigation has political overtones.

Amid this crisis, Arévalo is in the United States, where he has attended several meetings with actors of the Government of this country, as well as with academic and social organizations.

The 64-year-old progressive must assume the presidency of Guatemala, replacing the current president, Alejandro Giammattei, on January 14 for the 2024-2028 term. EFE

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