The Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network (BTS) posts about the Guatemala state, in thrall to Los Corruptos, continuing to criminalise democracy while seeking to prohibit the democratic winner of the Presidential elections this year, Bernardo Arévalo, from taking office. The state is now going after university students, faculty, journalists, and human rights lawyers in the so-called “USAC Takeover” (La Toma de la USAC) case. It seeks to punish those who spoke out against the forced imposition of Walter Mazariegos as president of the University of San Carlos (USAC) the country’s only public university. Yet another example of blatant corruption.

Yesterday morning [16^th Nov ‘23], the Public Prosecutor’s office (MP) went on a criminalization rampage, announcing 27 arrest warrants, detaining five peoples including university students, faculty, and ex-Semilla candidate Marcela Blanco, and conducting more than 30 police raids. The MP also indicated their intention to revoke immunity from president and vice-president elect, Bernardo Arévalo and Karin Herrera, as well as other high-profile legislators, including Samuel Pérez and Aldo Dávila, leaving them vulnerable to prosecution.

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The arrest warrants issued by the MP against university students, faculty, journalists, and human rights lawyers in the so-called “USAC Takeover” case seek to punish those who spoke out against the forced imposition of Walter Mazariegos as president of the University of San Carlos (USAC), the country’s only public university. Mazariegos, featured on the Engel List for corrupt and anti-democratic actors, proclaimed himself university president on May 14, 2022. Mazariegos was supposed to run against Jordán Rodás, the exiled former Human Rights Ombudsman, who is named on the MP’s warrant list. Mazariegos pulled off a “victory” when Rodás was barred from the elections and just 72 of the 170 possible electors were allowed to vote. Police and armed actors attacked protestors and prevented electors from entering the voting location. Following the election theft, student leaders, accompanied by teachers, Indigenous organizations, and civil society, organized a months-long resistance demanding Mazariegos’s resignation.

You can read the full piece with links and photos, here Public Prosecutor’s Office Continues Criminalization of Popular Dissent, Election Winners.

Categories: Corruption, Criminalisation, Culture, Guatemala, Human Rights, Impunity, Justice, Presidential Elections, Solidarity in Action, Violence

Tags: Breaking the Silence (BTS), La Toma de la USAC, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC), USAC