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Dear Friend,
We are very concerned for the safety of peaceful protesters and for the state of democracy in Guatemala. The Biden Administration has made strong statements of concern and repudiation related to events in Guatemala but has not taken strong action. Now the courageous Guatemalan people who are in the streets to demand that democratic principles be respected are in danger.
Take Action:
Email your member of Congress. Demand that the US government promptly apply Magnitsky sanctions to those undermining democracy in Guatemala. Insist that the US government make clear that Guatemalans’ right to protest must be respected. Any use of force that interferes with that right should be strongly condemned.
Background:
Until October 9, mass protests of the Attorney General's efforts to overturn the results of the August 20 election were peaceful, even joyful. Indigenous authorities, students, unions, teachers, many sectors of society had come together and had blocked up to 100 strategic points on roads throughout the country, demanding the resignation of Attorney General Consuelo Porras. The protests were sparked by the September 29 raid on the offices of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal; in the raid, the Public Ministry forcibly seized 125,000 documents and original records of the general elections, in what President-elect Bernardo Arévalo called a slow-motion coup and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights referred to as a “theft.” The US government, responding to the raid through State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, stated that visas would be denied for individuals implicated in efforts to obstruct the democratic process. Attorney General Consuelo Porras, Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, and Judge Fredy Orellana already are under such restrictions, along with a number of other Guatemalans on the Engel List, and this measure has not had any corrective effect.
On the night of October 9, following a week of peaceful protests, apparent Infiltrators vandalized statues and broke windows. The vandalism seems to have been presaged by top Guatemalan officials. On October 8, referring to the growing protests, Interior Minister General David Napoleón Barrientos Girón announced that, if there were vandalism, the police would have to use force. The next morning Attorney General Consuelo Porras publicly repeated the same message. On the night of October 9, President Giammattei gave a speech, which had been recorded beforehand, as was evident from the cuts, saying there was currently violence being carried out by protesters. The President in his broadcast announced that the protesters were "not peaceful protesters" but trained shock groups whose leaders had been identified, and he said arrest warrants would be issued for them. He also said the protests were funded by international NGOs and that there has been foreign participation in the "destabilization" in Guatemala.
Very shortly after his speech aired, police helicopters dropped teargas on demonstrators in front of the National Palace. Those demonstrations, according to various accounts, had been infiltrated by men said to be connected with the Ministry of the Interior. Some of these alleged infiltrators reportedly were seen by various people being dropped off in ministry vehicles, and in videos they can to seen to be carrying weapons. The vandals broke windows and pulled chairs from the municipal buildings out into the street, destroyed the bicentennial statue, and destroyed the memorial to the dozens of girls killed by state neglect in the Virgin of the Assumption Home fire. Riot police watched, without intervening.
The Ministry of the Interior on October 10 announced that the most important roads would be forcibly cleared if protesters do not move, and the Constitutional Court, in response to a request by the Public Ministry, ruled on October 11 ruled that Giammattei, the Minister of the Interior, and the National Civil Police must clear roads blocked by protesters.
Although a team from the Organization of American States, at the request of the Guatemalan government, is in Guatemala now with the aim of negotiating a solution, the protesters have been clear that the solution they want is the resignation of Porras, as well as of Rafael Curruchiche, head of the Special Prosecutors Office Against Impunity. President Giammattei has called on President-elect Bernardo Arévalo to meet with the OAS team; Arévalo has responded that it is the Indigenous leaders who convoked the demonstrations that OAS and president must negotiate with.
Riot police have been amassing in locations of the protests. The Guatemalan people need your support.
Click the link below to take action!
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