GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalan prosecutors mentioned Thursday they are going to search to strip President-elect Bernardo Arévalo and a number of other members of his celebration of their immunity for allegedly making social media posts that inspired college students to take over a public college in 2022.
Cultural Heritage prosecutor Ángel Saúl Sánchez introduced the transfer geared toward Arévalo and members of his Seed Movement at a information convention whereas federal brokers executed search warrants and sought to arrest greater than 30 pupil members of the celebration.
It was solely the newest authorized salvo towards Arévalo, an anti-corruption crusader who shocked the nation by successful the presidential election in August. The United States authorities, Organization of American States and different exterior observers have advised the authorized assaults are an try to maintain Arévalo from taking energy in January.
Attorney General Consuelo Porras and outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei have denied political motivations.
Since Arévalo gained a spot within the August runoff, prosecutors have been pursuing his celebration on accusations of wrongdoing within the gathering of the required signatures to register years earlier. A decide suspended the celebration at prosecutors’ request.
Among the crimes prosecutors plan to pursue towards Arévalo and others within the new case are aggravated usurpation, sedition and unlawful affiliation.
In April 2022, college students took over San Carlos University, Guatemala’s solely public college, following what they thought-about the fraudulent election of the college’s new rector Walter Mazariegos. They mentioned that through the vote by college students, college and directors, Mazariegos solely allowed those that would vote for him to solid their ballots.
The U.S. State Department sanctioned Mazariegos for suffocating democratic processes and taking the place of rector after what it referred to as a fraudulent course of.
The college students didn’t stand down till June of this yr.
In the case introduced Thursday, one of many examples given in prosecutors’ paperwork is a message wherein Arévalo congratulated the protesters on X, previously often known as Twitter, in March: “the USAC is making it possible to see a ray of hope in Guatemala.”
On Thursday, Arévalo referred to as the Attorney General’s Office’s actions towards his celebration “spurious and unacceptable.”
It got here someday after the Organization of American States everlasting council authorized a decision calling Guatemala’s Attorney General’s Office an undemocratic actor attempting to “discredit and impede” the democratic transition of energy.
Marcela Blanco, a younger celebration activist, posted on social media Thursday that brokers had come to her residence to arrest her and had been intimidating her.
“I am a citizen, I am of the people and they are doing this to me for speaking against corruption,” she wrote. “I ask for your support.”
