The president of the United States, Joe Biden, spoke this Friday during his meeting with his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of his concern about the current crisis in Guatemala that could prevent the president-elect Bernárdo Arévalo from taking office. revealed the American official.
A day after the Guatemalan Public Ministry opened a new criminal case against Arévalo and asked to withdraw his immunity for the alleged damage to the University of San Carlos in 2022, Biden shared with López Obrador the impact of these judicial attacks on Guatemalan governance.
“The presidents discussed the worrisome signals coming from Guatemala about efforts to really undermine the ability of the President-Elect to take office next year,” the senior US official said of today’s bilateral meeting in San Francisco.
According to the US official who requested anonymity, President Biden specifically mentioned the repeated efforts of Guatemala’s attorney general and head of the Public Ministry, Consuelo Porras, to block the inauguration of Arévalo scheduled for January 14.
“They talk about Guatemala in terms of how governance problems, particularly as a result of the corrupt attorney general’s attempts to destroy the will of the people of Guatemala, may have implications for migration and affect the US and Mexico,” he said.
In addition to Arévalo, the new accusation from the Public Ministry also targets the Vice President-Elect, Karin Herrera, and some deputies from the Semilla Movement, the political party in which Arévalo achieved victory in two rounds in the presidential election held on June 25 and August 20.
Following the accusations against Arévalo, the United States Department of State revealed that it had frozen the US visas of 11 Guatemalan figures for undermining democracy and the rule of law. The total number of Guatemalans that the US has allowed to freeze their visas has now reached 25.
Since September 2021 and again in May 2022, the United States Department of State has impeached Attorney General Porras, accusing him of obstructing and undermining corruption investigations in Guatemala with the aim of protecting his political allies. and gain political favor.
