Faces for Democracy
Events is the middle east have, understandably, overshadowed news in the rest of the world. A remarkable thing has been going on in Guatemala. The country is riddled with corruption and inequality. The corrupt ride around in Porsches and helicopters while infants, especially the indigenous, perish from malnutrition. This year is election year in Guatemala. Los corruptos, a group of screamingly corrupt politicians, judges, business people and members of congress, ran the favorite and respectable candidate out of the country four years ago and their purge has continued against anyone challenging their reign. Journalists have been jailed on spurious charges and respectable, honest judges have been exiled to the United States. For the first round of the election in June los corruptos found a way to eliminate two candidates who were favored by the populace. The choice was then between bad and worse. But wait. There was another candidate to whom no one had paid much attention. A decent, honest, educated man who spoke of fighting corruption, inequality and putting money into education and jobs in order to reduce the need to immigrate. Bernardo Arévalo de Leon whose father was the last decent president in Guatemala more than seventy years ago. He was elected in 1944 in a contest that is generally considered to have been the first truly free election in the country’s history. He won 86% of the vote.
Apparently no one took the younger Arévalo’s candidacy seriously not even his party known as Semillas or Seeds. Much to everyone’s surprise and clearly to the dismay of los corruptos Arévalo took second place in the election thus making him eligible for the runoff election in August. Attempts were made to keep him off the ballot but apparently the United States rattled the “sanctions” sword at CACIF, the alliance of the biggest industries in Guatemala. Not only did Arévalo stay on the ballot but he won the election by some sixty percent.
What has followed the August election are multiple attempts to decertify the Semillas party of Arèvalo and other attempts to keep Arévalo from taking office in January. In early October an indigenous group, 48 Cantones, representing forty-eight districts within the centrally located department of Totonicapan called for a national strike. They were demanding the resignation of the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, a prosecutor, Rafael Curruchiche and an equally corrupt judge, Freddy Orellana. The three had already been identified by the United States as integral members of los corruptos and had their visas to the United States revoked.
Within days of the call for the national strike there were as many as two hundred road blockades basically paralyzing the country. The protests were peaceful, even cheerful. Some of the blockades consisted of dance, even yoga classes. The blockade to the entrance of Antigua had live music, an open microphone, food and beverage vendors and lots of participants.
There were electrical outages along with fuel and food shortages across the country. Bur, perhaps due to the lockdowns and shortages suffered during the pandemic, people remained cheerful and endured. Social media messages spoke of which markets were open and where it was possible to buy toilet paper, chicken, etc. The government sent the police to disperse the roadblocks and often the police were surrounded by the protesters. The only violence that occurred was the result of disruptors on the government payroll.
While the roadblocks have mostly stopped the protests have not. Nor have the attempts by the corruptos to keep Arévalo from taking office. A year or so ago there was a clearly fraudulent election perpetrated by the the current president, one of the corruptos, to elect one of his shady pals as rector of the national public university, the University of San Carlos. Attempts were made to stifle student participation for electing representatives to faculty boards. There was a protest by the 120,00 or so students and faculty which resulted in a student occupation and shutdown of the university for fourteen months. Recently the corruptos imprisoned a number of faculty and students who were deemed to be leaders of the protest. One student who was scheduled to graduate with a degree in applied physics participated in his graduation from his cell with musicians playing graduation music outside of the prison. The student’s scholarship to attend graduate school in Mexico is now in jeopardy. All have now been released from prison but have been subjected to house arrest. If you read Spanish .... https://prensacomunitaria.org/2023/11/javier-de-leon-el-estudiante-que-se-gradua-en-la-carcel-de-mariscal-zavala/
Back to the embattled presidential candidate. The corruptos have decided to appeal to the supreme court and congress (both are full of bad players) to strip the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the immunity normal awarded to candidates. If they are successful it is obvious that they plan to charge the two with causing the occupation of the university and put them in jail or send them fleeing into exile. Both have expressed support for the students in the past but were hardly responsible for the occupation.
If the two are charged I would expect the group, 48 Cantones, to call for another national strike. And I would expect most of the population to participate and one would hope that it would remain peaceful.
Arévalo has visited the US State Department in Washington, DC several times. There is no doubt that conversations are ongoing as if the corruptos succeed in turning Guatemala into another Nicaragua there is no doubt that there will be many more desperate migrants at the border. The US understands that the solution to the immigration issue is to resolve the issues at the source. Maybe this time the US will do the right thing. As a result of the meetings a number of other people have received sanctions and loss of their visas. The hope at this point is that the international community will succeed in applying sufficient pressure to allow Arévalo to take office on January 14, 2024 and be able to govern. As the US is Guatemala’s largest trading partner the threat of economic sanctions carries a fair amount of weight.
The most recent insult was a congressional vote passing a highly criticized 2024 budget which will not only limit the president elect’s ability to make good on his social services promises but it increases funding for the hopelessly corrupt attorney general and judicial branch. In addition, millions of dollars will be diverted to “non-profits” established by members of congress that are widely believed to be non-functioning organizations stealing government funds for the purchase of helicopters, Porsches, etc.
For more background on the plight of the indigenous in Guatemala have a look at the film, 500 Years, available on Amazon Prime. Also the Steven Spielberg film, Finding Oscar also available on Amazon Prime.
If you are so inclined please light a candle for the people of Guatemala.
