Observers around the world are increasingly criticizing attempts to use a politically motivated legal system to prevent Bernardo Arevalo, the President-elect of Guatemala, from taking office.
A prosecutor in Guatemala’s attorney general’s office made a move on Thursday to remove Arevalo’s immunity from prosecution, alleging that he and his running mate were involved in the takeover of a university in the capital city last year.
Arevalo, an anti-corruption candidate who won by a large margin in August, has called the prosecutor’s action “completely illegal.”
In a statement on Saturday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and its Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression condemned the attorney general’s office’s “incessant improper actions and interference.”
The statement said, “These actions threaten the democratic order, the ongoing presidential transition process, and the individual and collective exercise of civil and political liberties in the country.”
Also on Saturday, senior U.S. Department of State official Brian Nichols criticized the attorney general’s office’s “malign request” to remove Arevalo and his Vice President-elect Karin Herrera’s immunity in a social media post.
In addition, the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (Grupo IDEA) published a letter signed by 29 former heads of state from Latin America and Spain denouncing the “persecution” of Arevalo and Herrera. They believe this persecution aims to hinder the will of the people of Guatemala, who have already expressed their choice through free elections.
The Guatemalan Attorney General Consuela Porras, who has been accused of corruption by the U.S. government, has been pursuing a criminal investigation against Arevalo and his center-left Seed Movement party since before his election.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
