Politics

Guatemala President-elect suspends govt transition process

Guatemala City, Sep 12 (EFE).- Guatemala’s President-elect Bernardo Arevalo de Leon, said Tuesday he momentarily suspended the transition process with the current government following the prosecutor’s office’s actions against the June 25 elections.

Arevalo de Leon said at a press conference that the decision is due “to the situation caused” by the office, “while the necessary political conditions are reestablished.”

The president-elect asked for the resignation of the attorney general and head of the prosecutor’s office Consuelo Porras, whom he had accused on Sep. 1 of carrying out a “coup” against him.

“We have informed President Alejandro Giammattei that we are temporarily suspending our participation in the administrative transition process,” the 64-year-old academic said.

Arevalo de Leon accused the state of trying to deprive him from holding office despite winning the elections.

Giammattei and Arevalo de Leon met Monday for the second time about the transition process, with the secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, as a witness.

However, the prosecutor’s office, whose leadership is sanctioned by the United States, raided the Supreme Electoral Court on Tuesday and opened boxes with votes, despite the refusal of the state electoral entity.

Arevalo de Leon thus demanded the immediate resignation of Porras and her officials Rafael Curruchiche and Cinthia Monterroso, in addition to criminal judge Fredy Orellana, who endorsed the raid.

“Only his departure from office will allow the country’s constitutional order to be guaranteed,” Arevalo de Leon said. The president-elect said Porras is influenced by “mafia groups and elites.”

The office’s persecution against Arevalo de Leon and his party, the Semilla Movement, began three weeks after the academic unexpectedly advanced to the runoff, when polls placed him in seventh place.

“I urge all state institutions and officials not to give in to these arbitrariness and that in accordance with what is expressed in Article 156 of our Constitution, no public, civil or military official or employee is obliged to comply with manifestly illegal orders,” he said.

On Jan. 14, Arevalo de Leon must assume the presidency for the 2024-2028 term, the first of a social democratic government in the history of the nation. EFE

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