Two Maya K’iche’ pro-democracy leaders who were key in fending off an electoral coup in 2023 and 2024 have now been arrested and accused of terrorism, including a member of President Bernardo Arévalo’s cabinet. In response, Arévalo and Indigenous authorities presented an injunction against the attorney general and called for renewed demonstrations. Amid an ever-steepening assault on anti-coup actors, human rights experts warn about the danger of terrorism charges to curb the right to protest.
Yuliana Ramazzini writes in El Faro English on the continuing use of lawfare by the Attorney General’s office against anti-corruption actors, especially targetting Indigenous leaders.
On Wednesday, April 23, the Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime arrested Luis Pacheco, the current vice minister of Sustainable Development at the Ministry of Energy and Mines. Pacheco gained a national profile two years ago as president of the Maya K’iche’ authority known as the 48 Cantons of Totonicapán, a key motor in the nationwide pro-democracy movement in 2023 and 2024 to stave off an electoral coup.
The 48 Cantons and other Indigenous authorities mobilized the country in peaceful marches, blockades, and sit-ins, demanding the resignation of Attorney General Consuelo Porras for her illegal attempts to prevent President Bernardo Arévalo from winning the elections, and then from taking office.
They also regularly met with then-president Alejandro Giammattei, Arévalo’s team, the private sector, religious leaders, embassies, and civil society as part of an unprecedented peacetime national dialogue.
Hector Chaclán, a former treasurer of the 48 Cantons, was arrested along with Pacheco. They now stand accused of terrorism and obstruction of criminal proceedings.
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In a video on his official X account, Arévalo seemed to recover the tenor of resistance he had invoked on the campaign trail, calling the arrests “an attack on democracy and on the resistance struggle waged by the people of Guatemala in 2023.” He called on citizens to “peacefully but clearly demand an end to this dark cycle of harassment that these criminals hiding in the Public Prosecutor’s Office are waging against the country.”
Arévalo and Indigenous authorities filed an injunction against Consuelo Porras, through the Presidential Commission Against Discrimination and Racism Against Indigenous Peoples in Guatemala (Codisra) and in consultation with civil society organizations, representatives of academia, and the religious sector. The president stated that the intention is to guarantee due process for “these leaders who have been spuriously criminalized.”
You can read the full article, with photos, here, Expanding Her Enemy List, Guatemalan AG Accuses Indigenous Leaders of Terrorism.
Categories: Corruption, Criminalisation, Guatemala, Human Rights, Impunity, Indigenous peoples, Justice, Racism, Solidarity in Action, Violence
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