The U.S. State Department, on July 19, updated its list of corrupt and anti-democratic actors, a document known as the Engel List, to now include the judge who issued an illegal order to suspend a progressive political party in Guatemala’s recent presidential elections. In 2023 so far, the State Department has added six officials from El Salvador, ten from Guatemala, ten from Honduras, and thirteen from Nicaragua to the total of over 120 individuals.
Public Domain
Former U.S. Representative Eliot Engel, official photo portrait, June 2003.
The Engel List was named after former U.S. Congress member Eliot Engel, Democrat of New York, who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 2019 to 2021. Engel sponsored a bill, passed in December 2020 as part of the United States-Northern Triangle Enhanced Engagement Act, that would deny U.S. entry visas to officials on the list who had been accused of substantial anti-democratic acts in their home countries, including corruption. The first list in July 2021, and was updated once before in 2022.
Among those previously listed are Guatemala’s Attorney General María Consuelo Porras, and the head of the country’s Special Prosecutor Against Impunity, Rafael Curruchiche. Both figures have attempted to persecute the progressive Movimiento Semilla party after its surprise success in the June 25 general election.
The new 2023 additions to the list include former Salvadoran presidents Mauricio Funes (2009-2014) and Salvador Sánchez Ceren (2014-2019), who are both accused of engaging in significant acts of corruption such as bribery, money laundering, and embezzlement. The current Nicaraguan attorney general, Wendy Carolina Morales Urbina, who is accused of facilitating a “coordinated campaign to suppress dissent,” was also added.
Also listed are a number of judges and prosecutors in Guatemala who have played an important role in the current attempts to undermine the country’s democratic process, these include Judge Fredy Orellana Letona, who has increasingly played an important role in the attacks on not only Semilla, but also on the press. Two others listed, Cinthia Edelmira Monterroso Gómez, a prosecutor with the anti-impunity unit, and Judge Jimi Rodolfo Bremer Ramírez, both have played critical roles in the prosecution of journalists, including in the criminal case against renowned Guatemalan journalist José Rúben Zamora, who was sentenced to six years in prison on false charges of money laundering.
While the list covers all of Central America, there’s a clear trend that’s emerged.
“The Engel list is beginning to touch the circle of influence of President Alejandro Giammattei.” —Renzo Rosal
“The Engel list is beginning to touch the circle of influence of the president, of Alejandro Giammattei,” Renzo Rosal, a Guatemalan independent political analyst and professor of political science, tells The Progressive.
Rosal points to politicians like Omar Ricardo Barrios Osorio, the current president of the board of directors of the National Port Commission, who, according to the list, “undermined democratic processes or institutions by conspiring to intimidate and harass an anti-corruption prosecutor for denouncing corrupt activity.”
There are few repercussions from being listed on the Engel list, other than being barred from entry into the United States. But as the threats to democracy in Guatemala grow following the June 25 election, there are calls for stronger sanctions against the corrupt actors who are seeking to undermine the democratic process.
“It ends up being adverse,” Rosal says. “Because what these actors do is close ranks. They [end up] feeling emboldened.”
On July 14, members of Congress issued a bipartisan statement calling on the Biden Administration to make full use of the sanctions that are a part of the Engel list.
On July 14, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey issued a statement calling on the Biden Administration to make full use of the sanctions that are a part of the Engel list.
“We are deeply concerned by the Guatemalan Attorney General’s Office’s attempt to illegally revoke the legal status of the political party of an opposition candidate in advance of the country’s August 20 runoff presidential elections,” the joint statement read. “The Attorney General Office’s decision is a blatant attempt to undermine the will of the Guatemalan people.”
The run-off elections in the Central American country will see Bernardo Arévalo of the progressive social democratic Movimiento Semilla Party face off against rightwing Sandra Torres of the National Unity of Hope (UNE) Party.
But as campaigning has started, there is uncertainty for voters and Guatemalan citizens that remains over the elections, as the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor’s Office has continued to justify their investigation of Movimiento Semilla. The investigation stems from alleged irregularities in the registration of the recently formed party. In a violation of protocol, Letona issued an order to suspend the party after anti-impunity investigators accused its candidates of illegally obtaining 5,000 signatures, paying affiliates seven Quetzales (or less than one dollar) per signature, and having the names of twelve deceased people on their documents when the party was formed.
But the intervention by the Public Prosecutor’s Office is illegal, and the move has been condemned by electoral officials, Guatemala’s highest court, and international observers. The Biden Administration has accused the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor’s Office of trying to “suffocate the will of the people.”
Jeff Abbott
Protester holds up a sign depicting Rafael Curruchiche as a cockroach during a protest against the head of the Special Prosecutor's office Against Impunity and Guatemala's Attorney General, July 2023.
Despite the criticism, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has continued to advance with their illegal investigation of the Movimiento Semilla. On July 21, police and investigators raided the party’s offices, hauling away crates covered in evidence tape. Just days before, police and investigators raided the registry of the Supreme Electoral Council, seeking to arrest the subdirector for not complying in the suspension of the Semilla Party, an action that is illegal according to Guatemala’s electoral law.
Movimiento Semilla denounced the raid, calling it illegal.
“[It] is part of the political persecution that the corrupt minority that knows it is losing power day by day is carrying out to try to intimidate us, to try to derail the electoral process . . . to try to topple democracy,” Arévalo said in a statement.
Guatemala’s highest court has upheld their decision that suspended the order to suspend the progressive party.
Meanwhile, Alejandro Giammattei and the Public Prosecutor have defended their illegal investigation, suggesting that other nation’s should respect Guatemala’s sovereignty.
International outcry over an investigation viewed as an attempt to overturn the results of the June 25 election has resulted in the country becoming more isolated.
International outcry over an investigation viewed as an attempt to overturn the results of the June 25 election has resulted in the country becoming more isolated. This is affecting Guatemala’s economy and standing in ways that could take years to recover from.
“There is a level of worry in the international community, which we did not have three or four months ago, even in Latin America,” Rosal says. “We are a concern. This isolates [Guatemala] even more.”