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November 8, 2023

 

Guatemala Election Watch #40
"The only thing we have to thank the [corrupt Guatemalan regime] for
is that they unified us."

Day 38 of nationwide protests against corrupt government officials trying to overturn August 20, 2023 election results

Below is the updated translated Prensa Comunitaria article

On August 20, 2023, President-elect Bernardo Arevalo & VP-elect Karin Herrera (of the Semilla Party) won the elections and are slated to assume the Presidency and control of executive branch of government on January 14, 2024.

Since well before August 20, the repressive Pacto de Corruptos (‘Covenant of the Corrupt’) government of Guatemala – longtime “democratic allie” of U.S., Canada, E.U., World Bank and transnational corporations – have been trying to block or overthrow the 2023 election results.

2 months, 6 until Jan.14, 2024 transfer of power

Stay tuned … This is not over

"The only thing we have to thank the [corrupt Guatemalan regime] for is that they unified us."

Luz Ulario indigenous mayor: "This is a revolution with sticks, not bullets".
By Regina Perez, November 3, 2023
https://prensacomunitaria.org/2023/11/luz-ulario-alcaldesa-indigena-esta-es-una-revolucion-con-varas-no-con-balas1/

Thousands of people from the departments heeded the call of the indigenous and ancestral authorities who called for the "March for Democracy" in Guatemala City. After forming four marches and arriving at the headquarters of the MP in the Gerona neighborhood, they all walked to the Constitutional Court and ended the concentration in the Constitution Square. 

Indigenous authorities led the Great March for Democracy in which thousands of people from all over the country participated. "It is a revolution with sticks, not bullets," said Luz Emilia Ulario Zavala, indigenous mayor of Santa Lucía Utatlán, referring to the sticks carried by ancestral and community authorities.

Photo @ Regina Perez

The marches that gathered in front of the MP headquarters in zone 1 left from Aguilar Batres, Metronorte, zone 18 and zone 15, from Calzada Roosevelt and El Incienso bridge and were made up of residents from the west, Sololá, San Marcos, Huehuetenango, Totonicapán and Quiché, as well as from the north of the country and from the Xinka territory, which includes Santa Rosa, Jutiapa and Jalapa.

All the marches ended in front of the main office of the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP). From there they began a new march where Luis Pacheco, president of the Board of Directors of the 48 Cantons of Totonicapán expressed that this march is a demonstration of unity and that "our resistance will continue until they resign".

After leaving the MP, the march headed to the Constitutional Court (CC) where the ancestral and indigenous authorities asked to know the progress of an injunction they filed a month ago when the Special Prosecutor's Office Against Impunity (FECI) raided the headquarters of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) and seized the electoral boxes. However, the magistrates were not in the building.

After that stop at the CC, where they criticized the role that the magistrates have played in the crisis, the walk went to the Plaza de la Constitución where the demonstrators remained until 3:00 in the afternoon, to then return to Gerona, in zone 1 and continue the resistance, which will leave again this Saturday, November 4, to the Plaza de la Constitución.

Pacheco denied that these marches are called by a particular political party as claimed by accounts on social networks belonging to netcenters. "That is a lie, we come by our own conviction", he indicated.

One of the demands of this mobilization continues to be the resignation of the Attorney General, Consuelo Porras, whom they point out of attacking democracy due to the investigations that the FECI is carrying out against the Moviviento Semilla party, which was suspended last November 2.

Ulario informed the demonstrators that they found out that Porras was in the building. "We want to inform you that here, as all the walls have ears, here is now in session the prosecutor, so she knows about the movements we are doing, we hope she has a little dignity and resigns, because this is the clamor of the people," he said.

It was the first time in weeks that the whereabouts of the attorney general is known, who according to the information given by the MP held a meeting with the Minister of the Interior, Byron René Bor.
 

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

It is impossible to keep up with the ‘death by a 1000 cuts’ attacks being carried out by the ‘covenant of the corrupt’ government and allies against the electoral victory of President-elect Bernardo Arevalo and VP-elect Karin Herrera of the Semilla Party.

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

More information

Rights Action’s “Guatemala Election Watch” alerts (www.rightsaction.org/emails)
NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with People of Guatemala): www.nisgua.org; https://twitter.com/NISGUA_Guate 
GHRC (Guatemalan Human Rights Commission): www.ghrc-usa.org; https://twitter.com/GHRCUSA
Breaking the Silence: www.breakingthesilenceblog.com, https://twitter.com/BTS_MG
Festivales Solidarios @festivalesgt
Prensa Comunitaria @PrensaCommunitar; https://prensacomunitaria.org/

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