{"id":8228,"date":"2023-08-29T08:35:49","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T12:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8228"},"modified":"2023-08-29T08:35:49","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T12:35:49","slug":"guatemala-progressives-presidential-victory-certified-but-his-party-is-suspended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8228","title":{"rendered":"Guatemala Progressive\u2019s Presidential Victory Certified, but His Party Is Suspended"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Progressive candidate Bernardo Ar\u00e9valo was confirmed the winner<\/a><\/span> of Guatemala\u2019s presidential election by the country\u2019s Supreme Electoral Tribunal on Monday, but the same day another government body ordered his political party suspended.<\/p>\n

Ar\u00e9valo has faced a slew of legal challenges and allegations of irregularities since his unexpected victory over a candidate favored by the country\u2019s conservative elite.<\/p>\n

Ar\u00e9valo appears certain to take office as president on Jan. 14, but it was not clear whether his Seed Movement lawmakers would be able to take their seats in the country\u2019s Congress.<\/p>\n

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Ar\u00e9valo called the suspension ruling legally void and said his party would appeal it.<\/div>\n
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\u201cAs of this moment, no one can stop me from taking office on Jan. 14,\u201d he told a news conference.<\/p>\n

The electoral registry\u2019s ruling arose from an investigation into the Seed Movement by Guatemala\u2019s attorney general\u2019s office for alleged irregularities in the gathering of signatures for its formation as a party.<\/p>\n

If the Seed Party appeals the ruling, as promised, the case will be taken to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.<\/p>\n

The Tribunal outranks the electoral registry, so the victory by Ar\u00e9valo and the seats won in parliament by Seed Movement lawmakers in the first round elections appear confirmed. But the impact of the suspension of their party would have is unclear.<\/p>\n

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The announcements come after one of the most tumultuous elections<\/a><\/span> in the Central American nation\u2019s recent history, which has put to test Guatemala\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n

At a time when Guatemalans, hungry for change, have grown disillusioned with endemic corruption, Ar\u00e9valo and other opponents of the country\u2019s elite faced waves of judicial attacks in an attempt to knock them out of the race.<\/p>\n

Ar\u00e9valo, the little-known son of a former president, shocked much of the country by emerging as a frontrunner in the first round of presidential voting. He failed to get enough support to win outright and headed to a runoff vote against former first lady Sandra Torres. His rise came after a handful of other candidates were disqualified.<\/p>\n

Ar\u00e9valo rapidly gained support, campaigning on social progress and railing against corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis message generated, aroused hope, mobilized people who were fed up with corruption,\u201d he told the AP<\/a><\/span> in a June interview.<\/p>\n

Ar\u00e9valo easily beat Torres in the Aug. 20 presidential runoff. According to the official count, the progressive candidate obtained 60.9% of the valid votes cast, against 37.2% for the right-wing Torres. The party also won 23 seats in the 160-seat Congress.<\/p>\n

His win has been the source of a legal back-and-forth between various governmental entities and courts, some staffed with officials who have been sanctioned by the United States on charges of corruption. He has faced allegations of voter fraud by Torres, legal challenges and more.<\/p>\n

Eight days after the runoff, Torres still hasn\u2019t conceded defeat and outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei hasn\u2019t said anything about the latest developments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously another attempt to subvert Semilla\u2019s (the Seed Movement\u2019s) path to power,\u201d said Alex Papadovassilakis, a Guatemala-based investigator for InSight Crime focused on crime and corruption. \u201cI think we\u2019re entering uncharted waters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arrest warrants for electoral officials and raids to the party\u2019s headquarters have also caused concern in the international community and among Guatemalans.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the Organization of American States\u2019 human rights commission asked that Guatemala provide protection for Ar\u00e9valo after reports emerged of a possible plot to kill him.<\/p>\n

Ar\u00e9valo\u2019s victory has left much of the country\u2019s political establishment reeling, while his supporters have held protests against attempts to thwart his taking office.<\/p>\n

United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres expressed concern about the attempts to undermine the results of Guatemala\u2019s presidential election, a U.N. spokeswoman said earlier.<\/p>\n

The 64-year-old son of former President Juan Jos\u00e9 Ar\u00e9valo was born in Uruguay, where his father was in exile following the ouster in a 1954 CIA-backed coup of his successor President Jacobo \u00c1rbenz, whom the U.S. saw as a threat during the Cold War.<\/p>\n

Sonia P\u00e9rez D. and Megan Janetsky, AP News<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Progressive candidate Bernardo Ar\u00e9valo was confirmed the winner of Guatemala\u2019s presidential election by the country\u2019s Supreme Electoral Tribunal on Monday, but the same day another government body ordered his political party suspended. Ar\u00e9valo has faced a slew of legal challenges and allegations of irregularities since his unexpected victory over a candidate favored by the country\u2019s conservative elite.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":8231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/695ebc8\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/7315x4877+0+0\/resize\/1440x960!\/format\/webp\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F35%2Ff8%2F71ed66d426b2347455912bdb011b%2Fd85163f5aca34f0bb47d580eec5b2d22","fifu_image_alt":"Guatemala Progressive\u2019s Presidential Victory Certified, but His Party Is Suspended","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-governance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8230,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8228\/revisions\/8230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}