Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office will continue to investigate the Seed Movement despite intensifying criticism

The Guatemalan Attorney General’s Office announced on Friday that it will continue the investigation of the Movimiento Semilla, the left-wing party that promotes Bernardo Arévalo and that surprised by reaching the presidential ballot, despite criticism for the meddling of the Judiciary in the electoral process.

“The actions of the Public Ministry are not intended to interfere with the date of the second round of elections or to disqualify the participation of any candidate in the ballot,” said the Prosecutor’s Office in a press release.

The seizure of party documentation and the raid on the headquarters of the Citizens Registry of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) carried out the day before they were harshly questioned nationally and internationally and generated demonstrations in various departments of the country.

The Prosecutor’s Office investigates alleged crimes in the formation of Movimiento Semilla that occurred in 2018 and reported in 2022. Just 50 minutes before it was made official that the party would participate in the second round of electionsRafael Curruchiche, head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI) that is in charge of the Semilla case, announced that a judge suspended the legal status of that political force at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office.

Faced with the mobilizations and questioning, Curruchiche justified his actions on Friday in a YouTube broadcast and did so by saying that crimes that must be investigated were committed in the formation of the party. Curruchiche was sanctioned by the US government for undermining the country’s democracy and hindering the fight against corruption.

Giammattei’s Shadow

President Alejandro Giammattei is deeply unpopular at home, but aside from occasional rebukes from the United States and Europe, he has managed to consolidate his grip on the judicial system with little consequence. The Attorney General’s Office is one of his main allies.

Giammattei, who by law cannot run for re-election, has kept out of the public eye. His office issued a statement in which he maintained that he respects the separation of powers and that he would not get involved in legal proceedings.

Giammattei’s administration was a dramatic transformation for a country that four years ago launched an aggressive United Nations-backed anti-corruption effort. But since that mission was ousted by Giammattei’s predecessor, the president has consistently placed his faithful to replace prosecutors and judges who spearheaded that fight against corruption.

In this context, the presidential elections of June 25 took place, which caused a shock to Guatemalans and foreign observers.

Before the elections all the polls indicated that there would be a second round between a narrow list of candidates from the right and left but the null votes, many deposited as protest, were more than the votes received by the 22 candidates. In turn, Arévalo reached the runoff on August 20 as the second most voted after former first lady Sandra Torres, from the right-wing National Unity of Hope (UNE).

Katya Salazar, executive director of the Due Process Foundation, said the surprise support for Arévalo was “a demonstration of dissatisfaction” in the Central American country that shook the power structure even the president himself. “I think fear clouded it,” Salazar said.

widespread rejection

Even Torres joined the questions and announced that he was suspending his campaign in solidarity with Arévalo.

Although UNE has been a key force in helping Giammattei push his legislative agenda, Torres appears to fear that the attack on the Seed Movement could undermine his candidacy.

“As a candidate I want to compete on equal terms,” Torres said. “We want to express our solidarity with the voters of the Semilla party and also with those who went to the polls,” she added.

Shortly after, the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest court, granted the Seed Movement an injunction against the suspension of your legal statuswhich temporarily reduced tensions.

Arévalo thanked the Constitutional Court as well as the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, which promised to defend the will of the voters.

That “the corrupt who have tried to steal these elections from the people today be marginalized,” the candidate demanded.

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