Guatemalan president-elect Bernardo Arévalo with vice Karin Herrera and supporters. Photo: Bernardo Arévalo/ X
By Global News Service
Guatemala’s Prosecutor’s Office (MP) announced on December 8 that the elections held in 2023 which saw the victory of progressive Bernardo Arévalo de León, must be annulled due to alleged administrative irregularities of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. The move comes after months of maneuvers by the office to undermine the validity of the elections, and even Arévalo’s ability to participate.
In response, president-elect Arévalo stated, “We are facing an absurd, ridiculous[,] and perverse coup d’état.” Arévalo won the elections with 61 percent of the votes in August.
“It is time to vigorously defend our voice and the possibility of building a different country. No one should come between the people of Guatemala and their spring,” said Arévalo.
“The coup plotters are giving their [last desperate] kicks,” said Arévalo, who added that these actions come from a group of senior officials who operate from the MP.
The 65-year-old president-elect said that “the coup attempt is real and has brought us to a crucial moment in the history of our country.”
Meanwhile, the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Guatemala, Blanca Alfaro, stated on Friday, December 8 following the declarations from the Prosecutor’s Office that there is no way to repeat the elections and that the elected authorities must take office in their respective positions in January.
Alfaro told the press that the results obtained in the 2023 elections “are already validated, made official, and are unalterable.”
from the Peoples Dispatch / Globetrotter News Service