Guatemala President Election Protests. What are the protests in Guatemala about? The Protesters blocked roads and closed shops to object to an apparent government attempt to overturn the recent presidential election.
Guatemalans have taken to the streets. All they want is for their president-elect to take office.
The United States has blocked Guatemala’s Attorney General, Consuelo Porras, from entering the country, accusing her of corruption.
Ms. Porras, according to the US State Department, “repeatedly obstructed and undermined anti-corruption investigations in Guatemala.”
Ms. Porras attempted to prevent Guatemala’s freshly elected President from taking office. According to Ms. Porras’ fraudulent assertions, the elected President’s Party was improperly registered for the election, and Ms. Porras subsequently had the election votes and records taken by police in an attempt to prevent the incumbent from entering office in January.
Guatemalan President-elect Bernardo Arévalo didn’t think he stood a chance. However, the scholarly 65-year-old who ran a corruption-fighting campaign badly overestimated his appeal. He finished second in the June election, prompting a runoff two months later, which he easily won.
Arévalo is the son of former Guatemalan president Juan José Arévalo.
Juan José Arévalo, Guatemala’s first democratically elected president in 1945.
He was elected following a popular uprising against the United States-backed dictator Jorge Ubico that began the Guatemalan Revolution. He remained in office until 1951, surviving 25 coup attempts.
Now his Son finds himself in the same position a coup attempt against Guatemala’s democracy, by a corrupt Attorney General.
Bernardo Arévalo was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1958, the fourth of five siblings. During Guatemala’s military governments, which feared his father’s popularity, his family lived in exile. Arévalo grew up in Venezuela, Mexico, and Chile while his father relocated for employment as a professor and amassed support for a second presidential candidacy, which was ultimately foiled by another military coup to prevent elections.
Guatemala President Election Protests
Whatever any news outlet says, the election protests are without violence.
Roads are closed, disrupting tourist transit, food supply, gas, boat services, ATM’s that are empty, banks with limited hours, and no boat services on Lake Atitlan.