The United States Department of State announced on October 31 that they have issued sanctions against more than a dozen members of the Guatemalan government and private sector. While the names have yet to be released, the State Department has stated that the decision comes from the repeated attempts to undermine the results of the 2023 Presidential elections, which saw a surprise win for progressive Bernardo Arévalo of the Movimiento Semilla party.
The State Department also announced that they are sanctioning three former and current members of the cabinet of current president Alejandro Giammattei for significant acts of corruption. According to the announcement, the ministers include: Gendri Rocael Reyes Mazariegos, former minister of the interior; Alberto Pimentel Mata, the former minister of energy and mines; and Oscar Rafael Pérez Ramírez, the current vice minister of sustainable development. These individuals and their families are now barred from entering the United States.
“Sanctions are the right thing to do as these people are accused of subverting democracy or undermining the rule of law,” Edgar Ortiz, a constitutional lawyer and political commentator, tells The Progressive. “But I’m not sure that those sanctions will effectively change the behavior of the local actors.”
Since 2021, the United States has announced sanctions against forty-six Guatemalan officials, judges, politicians, and businessmen who have been involved in corruption and anti-democratic efforts.
“It will have a small impact if anything,” he adds. “They are not cosmopolitan businessmen who are especially worried about losing their visas.”
Since 2021, the United States has announced sanctions against forty-six Guatemalan officials, including Attorney General María Consuelo Porras; her close ally, anti-impunity prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche; and judges, politicians, and businessmen who have been involved in corruption and anti-democratic efforts.
The announcement comes as Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal officially closed the electoral cycle on October 31, ratifying the results of both the June 25 general elections and August 20 run-off election. But with the closure of the electoral process, the country’s Supreme Electoral Council officially announced the suspension of Arévalo’s Movimiento Semilla party, which prohibits the party from realizing certain actions, such as limiting their ability to shape legislation in the upcoming government. The Semilla party can file an appeal of the decision, but this is just one of several consistent efforts to undermine the incoming administration in the months ahead of when Arévalo takes office on January 14, 2024.
Since Arévalo’s unexpected victory, Porras—along with judges and other prosecutors—have sought to cast doubt on the elections through accusations of fraud. They have raided the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal, taken official vote tallies and ballots as evidence, and repeatedly sought to suspend Arévalo’s Movimiento Semilla party on spurious and illegal charges through a court that does not have jurisdiction over elections and political parties.
The sanctions come as Guatemala has seen over a month of protests demanding the resignation of Porras and Curruchiche, led by Indigenous Ancestral Authority. The Giammattei administration has sought to crack down on protests using violence, leading former Minister of the Interior Napoleón Barrientos, a retired brigadier general, to resign on October 17 after refusing to use force to disperse protesters.
A new Minister of the Interior was sworn in the same day.
While the undermining of democracy in Guatemala has received little attention from the U.S. Congress, individual representatives have spoken up. The day before the announcement of sanctions, Representative Norma Torres, Democrat of California, issued a statement calling on the Biden Administration to issue further sanctions on the Guatemalan officials.
Torres issued another statement following the State Department’s announcement praising the move, but calling for stronger sanctions from other agencies.
“I applaud the Department of State’s strong actions to impose visa restrictions on those undermining democracy and the rule of law, including corrupt Public Ministry officials,” Torres wrote in her statement. “A peaceful transfer of power is critical to Guatemala’s democratic future. It is my hope other agencies—including the Department of Treasury—will follow suit with equally strong actions against these anti-democratic actors in Guatemala.”
Amid Guatemala’s political crisis is the emergence of a denialism of the electoral results from within groups who seek to oppose Arévalo and who want to maintain a culture of impunity.
While those echoing the narrative appear to be limited, the sense of conspiracy within far-right circles hanging over these elections is widespread, in spite of the Organization of American States rejecting such accusations. There is a false sense that Arévalo’s success was a conspiracy carried out by a shadowy elite rather than the will of a population’s desire for a real change.
There is a false sense that Arévalo’s success was a conspiracy carried out by a shadowy elite rather than the will of a population’s desire for a real change.
The current narrative stems from the public prosecutor’s office’s investigations seeking to cast doubt over these elections, although the Attorney General has not stated this outright. These efforts reflect the election denialism of the far-right in the United States after the 2020 presidential election.
The narrative of a conspiracy has been propagated by members of the far-right close to the Attorney General’s office and members of the most extreme elements of the country’s military. While the group is small, their spreading of doubt and fear about the transition of power has generated uncertainty in the population. But unlike what occurred in the United States or in Brazil, this narrative lacks a single individual that those seeking to propagate uncertainty are rallying around.
“We don’t have a popular leader like [Donald] Trump or as [Jair] Bolsonaro in Brazil,” Ortiz says. “Here there is a small number of people who believe the election was stolen, and they are the same people who believe that Arévalo is a communist and that Guatemala is becoming a Cuba.”
Arévalo has referred to current actions to undermine the results as a coup d’état, and has tried to calm concerns and unease from the population regarding the turmoil. Through the crisis, he has received impressive support from Guatemalans who have taken to the streets to defend their country’s democracy.
“In Guatemala, the opposition to Arévalo and the spreading of the narrative of the fraud or the big lie is a narrative of a small number of powerful actors who want an excuse to get rid of Arévalo,” Ortiz says. “But they lack popular support. We will not see violent episodes since nobody will fight for this small group. They don’t have credibility.”