Guatemalans demonstrate against corruption and political persecution

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Dozens of Guatemalans demonstrated this Saturday, June 5, their discomfort against the government presided by Alejandro Giammattei with a protest in the Plaza de la Constitución, in the heart of the historic center of the capital, and took a stand against corruption and political persecution.

Among the most visible slogans was a handwritten banner that read “Kamala te mienten” (“Kamala they lie to you”), about the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, who arrives in Guatemala this Sunday to dialogue with different sectors, including the Guatemalan President.

The demonstrators repudiated the arrest of the lawyer and former head of the country’s tax institution, Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa, who was arrested two weeks ago for alleged electoral crimes to create an environmental political party.

Solórzano Foppa was a prosecutor at the Public Ministry for more than a decade, in addition to the fact that – between 2016 and 2018 – he headed the Superintendence of Tax Administration (SAT), where he achieved a historic tax collection for having put in check several of the country’s large companies for tax fraud, including a fine of 100 million dollars (the largest in the country) to the firm Aceros de Guatemala.

For his part, in the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Solórzano Foppa was one of the collaborators of the investigation “La Línea”, in conjunction with the new International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), dissolved in 2019, which led to the fall of the Pérez Molina government.

Along with Solórzano Foppa, other figures were also apprehended, such as former CICIG analyst Aníbal Argüello, accused of alleged ideological falsehood and illicit association, crimes charged by the Electoral Crimes Prosecutor, Rafael Curruchiche.

One of the demonstrators against corruption and impunity, and particularly against the persecution of such political actors, was the mother of the former head of SAT, activist Silvia Solórzano Foppa, who assured local media that “Guatemala is on an artificial respirator”, besides asking for the release of her son.

Another of the Guatemalans’ slogans was “Corruption generates migration”, two of the issues that Vice President Harris has announced she will discuss with her interlocutors during her almost one-day stay in the Central American country.

The people also showed their support for the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI), headed by attorney Juan Francisco Sandoval, named this year “anti-corruption champion” by the U.S. State Department, and which is another target of attacks by conservative groups and allies of President Giammattei’s party.

The Secretary of State himself, Anthony Blinken, made clear during a call on Friday to his Guatemalan counterpart, Pedro Brolo, his “deep concern” over attempts to abolish anti-corruption entities such as the FECI, following a legal action before Guatemala’s highest constitutional court filed by a lawyer seeking the nullification of the agency as part of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Blinken told the Guatemalan foreign minister that they are “closely monitoring recent challenges to anti-corruption efforts in Guatemala,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

Harris was tasked by President Joe Biden to curb irregular immigration to the United States and to develop a strategy with the countries of northern Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) to address the causes that force thousands of people to leave their places of origin.

After her stay in Guatemala, Kamala Harris will travel to Mexico on Monday to continue her first foreign tour.