Roman Gressier wrote in El Faro English, in May, of the challenges facing the Bernardo Arévalo in seeking to remove Consuelo Porras as the Attorney General.

Time was indeed of the essence on Monday, May 6, when Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo presented a bill that would expand the legal pathways to dismiss the Attorney General. If passed, sitting AG Consuelo Porras, who despite broad international outcry and months of national protests tried to declare the elections “null” last year, could be removed for failure in her duties or for “lack of capacity, suitability, or honor.”

Eight days later, the initiative appears to be falling flat. Congress has repeatedly failed to even hold a plenary session. On Wednesday, legislators will take recess until August 1. Extraordinary sessions during break are uncommon, though negotiations could continue and on Monday President of Congress Nery Ramos did not rule out sessions in June or July.

“The only safe route to remove the attorney general is by congressional reform,” argues lead Semilla Congressman Samuel Pérez in an interview with El Faro English, describing the endangered proposal as seeking “enough autonomy so that an attorney general cannot be removed arbitrarily, but keeping escape valves so that the prosecutor’s office does not become a parallel organ completely shielded from accountability.”

Arévalo has for months searched for a route to can Porras, who has the backing of corrupt networks tied to the past government, as voters and social movements have called for quicker and more decisive presidential action. Expectedly, national political actors including 13 Indigenous authorities and the progressive-leaning National Business Council (CNE) have come out in support of the proposed reform.

The conservative business association CACIF —which has a tense relationship with Semilla and whose new leadership invited Porras to a May 8 Labor Conference, where images of pleasantries with the AG projected closeness— told El Faro English on Thursday, May 9, that “at the moment we do not have a position.”

By policy, CACIF finds consensus among chambers before taking a public stand, like when it condemned Porras’ election interference in December. Asked on Monday whether deliberations were ongoing, spokeswoman Rocío López said: “It’s possible.”

You can read the full piece, with links and photos, here, Arévalo’s Reform Bill to Sack Consuelo Porras Stalls in Gridlocked Congress.

Categories: Guatemala, Impunity, Indigenous peoples, Justice

Tags: Bernardo Arévalo, Consuelo Porras, El Faro, El Faro English, Movimiento Semilla, Roman Gressier