Guatemala Election Watch #34

Indigenous Authorities Call for Sanctions on Corrupt Actors in Guatemala 

Guatemala, October 3, 2023

Your Excellencies

United Nations Resident Coordinator's Office in Guatemala
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Guatemala
Organization of American States

Ambassadors/Ambassadors

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, United States, Uruguay, Delegation of the European Union in Guatemala, United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden, Russia, France, Germany, Spain.

Subject: Persistent attacks against democracy in Guatemala

Dear Sirs and Madams,

We, the ancestral and Indigenous organizations and authorities, representing communities, peoples and organizations of Guatemala, recognize and value the work carried out by the Electoral Observation Missions of the Organization of American States and the European Union for the first and second round of elections, which they certified as transparent, peaceful and orderly.

We appreciate the follow-up to the situation in Guatemala, which led the European Parliament to issue a resolution condemning the country for the persecution being carried out by Attorney General Consuelo Porras and the Supreme Court of Justice against the electoral process and against justice operators [judges, prosecutors, lawyers].

During the electoral process in our country, we have observed the insistence of the judiciary [administration of justice], especially the Public Prosecutor’s Office and its Special Prosecutor's Office Against Impunity (FECI), in trying to criminalize the President-elect, the political party Movimiento Semilla (that won him the presidency), members of the Semilla party, magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) and all those who participated in the electoral process and who protected and guaranteed the legality of the elections.

As Indigenous peoples and communities, we view with great concern the most recent criminalization actions against TSE personnel with the purpose of undermining the electoral process, violating the magistrates who have been at the head of an electoral process that, although it began with difficulties, has guaranteed the respect and fulfillment of the will of the people expressed in the ballot box.

These actions jeopardize the electoral process, a fundamental pillar of democracy. The Inter-American Democratic Charter establishes that democracy is essential for the social, political, and economic development of the peoples of the Americas. Both the Charter and multiple international instruments ensure that representative democracy is the basis of the rule of law and constitutional regimes, which is why we have organized ourselves to resist the attempt of corrupt actors to break the constitutional order.

For these reasons, recognizing and thanking the effort made by your countries to denounce these violations, we request that the Democratic Charter be invoked in Guatemala to reestablish the democratic order.

We also request the imposition of sanctions on the corrupt actors that make up the anti-democratic structure and that intend to take away our little democracy, sanctioning the funds they may have in their banks, declaring them unwelcome, withdrawing their visas or permits to enter your territories, including in the sanctions the following people:

Supreme Court Justices

1. Silvia Patricia Valdes Quezada
2. Nery Osvaldo Medina Mendez
3. Blanca Aida Stalling Davilla
4. Manuel Reginaldo Duarte Barrera
5. Silvia Veronica Garcia Molina
6. Jose Antonio Pineda Barales
7. Vitalina Orellana Y Orellana

Managers of the Supreme Court of Justice

Marta Esther Castro Castro
Alba Ruth Sandoval Guerra

Court of Appeals Magistrates

1. Carlos Rodemiro Lucero Paiz
2. Manfredo Alberto López Fuentes
3. Artemio Rodulfo Tanchez Merida
4. Elvia Ester Velazquez Sagastume
5. Wilber Estuardo Castellanos Venegas
6. Flor de Maria Galvez Barrios
7. Rosa Mariela Josabeth Rivera Acevedo
8. Mario Obdulio Reyes Aldana
9. Cesar Augusto Lopez Lopez
10. Igmain Galicia Pimentel
11. Cesar Augusto Aviña Aparicio
12. Herman Rigoberto Teni Paca
13. Dixon Diaz Mendoza
14. Benicia Contreras Calderon
15. Sonia Doradea Guerra
16. Maria de la Luz Gómez Mejia
17. Carlos Ronaldo Paiz Xula
18. Mario Obdulio Reyes Aldana 
19. Carlos Ramiro Contreras Valenzuela 
20. Doris Lucrecia Alonzo Hidalgo
21. Anabella Esmeralda Cardona Cambara
22. Harold Estuardo Ortiz Perez

Judges

1. Fredy Raul Orellana Letona
2. Jimi Rodolfo Bremer Ramirez
3. Victor Manuel Cruz Rivera
4. Geisler Smaille Perez Dominguez
5. Segio Rene Mena Samayoa

Members of the Congress of the Republic

1. Manuel Conde Orellana
2. Allan Estuardo Rodriguez Reyes
3. Shirley Joanna Rivera Zaldaña
4. Carlos Napoleon Rojas Alarcon
5. Boris Roberto España Caceres
6. Anibal Rojas Espino

Constitutional Court Magistrates

1. Nester Mauricio Vasquez Pimentel
2. Leyla Susana Lemus Arriaga
3. Roberto Molina Barreto
4. Dina Josefina Ochoa Escriba
5. Claudia Elizabeth Paniagua Perez
6. Rony Eulalio Lopez

Public Prosecutor's Office

1. Fiscal General, Maria Consuelo Porras Argueta
2. Jefe de la Fiscalía Especial Contra la Impunidad, Jose Rafael Curruchiche Cucul
3. La Fiscal Regional de la Región Nororiente, Cinthia Edelmira Monterroso Gomez

We also request sanctions against the businessmen financing this coup d'état, mainly through organizations such as the Foundation Against Terrorism, which should be urgently declared as a terrorist organization that is undermining democracy in the country.

More information

• Rights Action’s “Guatemala Election Watch” alerts (www.rightsaction.org/emails)
• Guatemala Human Rights Commission (www.ghrc-usa.org)
• Twitter feeds of Festivales Solidarios (@festivalesgt) & Prensa Comunitaria (@PrensaCommunitar)
• Prensa Comunitaria’s daily news (https://prensacomunitaria.org/)

Electoral coup d’etat: ‘Death by a 1000 cuts’

It is impossible to keep up with the attacks being carried out, daily, by the ‘covenant of the corrupt’ government and allies on the electoral process and against the Semilla Party – a ‘death by a 1000 cuts’ strategy, let alone increasing repression against protesters, judges, lawyers and prosecutors.

Rights Action calls for Americans and Canadians to keep sharing these informations widely (including media outlets), and to contact your Senators, Members of Congress and Parliamentarian, urge them to publicly support the Semilla Party and President-elect Bernardo Arevalo and VP-elect Karin Herrera, and to support calls for the main coup plotters to resign: Attorney General Consuelo Porras, special prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, Judge Fredy Orellana.

• U.S. Senate: https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact
• U.S. House: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
• Canadian Parliament: https://www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members

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