The Guatemalan Prosecutor's Office continues its offensive against Semilla and raids the party's headquarters: "it is a technical coup d'état"

The judicial soap opera continues in Guatemala against the Movimiento Semilla party, which came second in the June 25 elections and whose candidate, Bernardo Arévalo de León, aspires to the country's Presidency in the second round to be held on August 20. This Friday, prosecutors from the Special Prosecutor's Office Against Impunity (FECI) and agents of the National Civil Police (PNC) raided the headquarters of this group from where they took three boxes with documentation. For four hours, five Semilla administration workers were detained in response to the demands of the FECI, which is investigating this formation for an alleged case of false affiliate signatures during its constitution process in 2018.. The head of the FECI, Rafael Curruchiche, maintains that “there are indications that possibly more than 5,000 citizens were illegally adhered to the Seed Movement by forging their handwriting and signature.”. For this reason, it requested the suspension of the legal personality of this formation and the judge of the Seventh Court, Fredy Orellana, ordered it on July 12 to the Registry of Citizens of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).

However, the Constitutional Court (CC) stopped this judicial order after granting a provisional protection to Semilla that prevented Bernardo Arévalo de León from being removed from the electoral contest.. In addition, the director of the TSE's Registry of Citizens, Ramiro Muñoz, also refused to comply with the order, considering that it went against article 92 of the Electoral and Political Parties Law, which establishes that no formation can be suspended “after the call for an election and until it has been held.”

Despite this, the FECI carried out a raid this Thursday in Human Resources of the Citizens Registry of the TSE, in search of the file of the director of the Acting Registry, Eleonora Castillo, against whom the judge of the Seventh Court issued an arrest warrant for disobeying the order to legally suspend Semilla. The circumstance occurs that Castillo replaces Ramiro Muñoz in office, since he has taken a few days of vacation, after he decided not to comply with the judge's order.

The president of the TSE, Irma Palencia, remarked that the arrest warrant against Castillo is “illegal”, taking into account that “she enjoys the right of prior trial (immunity) inherent to the position she holds as acting director of the Registry of Citizens.”. Likewise, the judge of the Seventh Court has issued two other arrest warrants against the member of the Movimiento Semilla Cinthia Rojas and the former member of this party Jaime Gudiel Arias, whom he accuses of being the persons responsible for the illegal adhesions through false fingerprints and signatures.. Precisely, Bernardo Arévalo de León had already denounced Jaime Gudiel before the Prosecutor's Office for these facts that, in principle, were referred to the Electoral Crimes Prosecutor's Office, although later, they were sent to the FECI, whose chief, Rafael Curruchiche, has been included since 2022 in the US Engel List of corrupt and undemocratic actors for “obstructing investigations of acts of corruption against government officials.”

THE JUDGE INCLUDED IN THE LIST OF CORRUPT ACTORS IN THE US

Likewise, the US State Department published on Thursday a new Engel list, which includes another ten people from Guatemala, among which are Judge Fredy Orellana, who has ordered the legal suspension of seed, as well as prosecutor Cinthia Monterros of hope, Sandra Torres.

Bernardo Arévalo de León has denounced that the raid on the headquarters of the Seed Movement is the “blatant demonstration of the political persecution” that his party is suffering from the “corrupt minority that knows that it is losing power day by day and that is trying to intimidate us and derail the electoral process.”

The candidate for the presidency of Guatemala has labeled “absolutely illegal” the raid on the headquarters of his party because he is “in violation of clear orders” by the Constitutional Court, which this Friday has insisted in a statement that the criminal investigation against seed “lacks effects to suspend the continuity and conclusion of the process”, while the order of the judge of the seventh court ” Participants as long as the electoral process has not been completed. “

In this sense, Arévalo de León has accused Judge Fredy Orellana and prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche of “trying to overthrow democracy”, despite which he has stressed that he will continue with his electoral campaign, because on August 20 the people of Guatemala “will have the opportunity to decide who is going to direct the future of the country and not a corrupt prosecutor supported by a corrupt judge who acts totally outside the law.”

The national prosecutor of Semilla, Juan Gerardo Guerrero, has expressed himself in similar terms, who has considered the raid on Semilla as a “technical coup”, given that both the attorney general of the Public Ministry, Consuelo Porras, and the Seventh Judge are acting “totally outside the constitutional framework, committing illegalities, going against the rule of law and the purity of the electoral process.”. Thus, he estimated that the prosecutors and the judge are committing the crime of abuse of authority, which is why he requested his “immediate” dismissal.

In addition, he recalled that in the amparo granted to them by the CC, it made it clear that the Prosecutor's Office could continue with the criminal investigation against Semilla, although they can only carry out their actions in accordance with article 251 of the Electoral and Political Parties Law, so that only electoral crimes contemplated in the Penal Code can be charged.. However, he denounced that the judge and the prosecutor are applying the Law Against Organized Crime and the Money Laundering Law, in order to legally suspend Semilla.

Guerrero has revealed that when they were carrying out the search, the judge gave Bernardo Arévalo de León a period of two hours to deliver two documents to the FECI, arguing that if he does not do so, he commits the crime of obstruction of justice.. In recent days, several demonstrations have been called in front of the Guatemalan Prosecutor's Office to demand the resignation of Porras and Curruchiche, both included in the aforementioned Engel List.. Likewise, several organizations have called for a march this Sunday from the Supreme Court of Justice, which will end in the Public Ministry, while they are also considering the possibility of holding a National Strike this Monday to defend democracy.

One of the protesters was Alida Vicente, representative of the Palin Indigenous Authorities, who reminded the prosecutors that “they are not respecting the orders of the CC and the TSE, nor the decisions of the people of Guatemala who issued an opinion on June 25 and the annoyance of the criminal sectors is that the benefits after investing billions were not for them.”. Another woman, named Sandra, went on her own to demonstrate in front of the Semilla headquarters, where she called for the population to “wake up” and take to the streets because “if not, one day we won't be able to do it anymore and they will regret it.”

For his part, the Permanent Representative of the United States to the Organization of American States (OAS), Frank O.. Mora has expressed his “concern” over the arrest warrants issued against members of the Seed Movement and recalled that “Guatemalans deserve the right to vote for candidates without interference.”

Meanwhile, the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, condemned the raid on the Semilla headquarters and called to stop “immediately these attacks for political purposes and respect the electoral process, as well as the democratic system.”. Likewise, the main spokesman for external affairs of the European Union, Peter Stano, has said that the EU is “deeply concerned by the persistent attempts to undermine the integrity of the results” and has warned that attempts to annul them “would affect Guatemala's international relations, including with the EU”.

The TSE has already made it clear that on August 20, the second round of elections between Arévalo de León and Sandra Torres will be held, as planned, so that the Prosecutor's investigation will not affect the process.. In order to get the Ministries of the Interior and Defense of the Executive of Guatemala to support the process, last morning the Court presented a preventive amparo action in the CC in the face of the “certain, future and imminent threat that the authorities violate the Democratic State of Law”.. The Government of Alejandro Giammattei, which has never spoken out about the threat to the country's democracy, described this legal action as “surprising and regrettable.”