The celebration of academic Bernardo Arévalo as Guatemala’s elected president last Sunday was cut short when the prosecutor, whose leadership is sanctioned by the United States and has been trying for weeks to suspend his candidacy, confidentially told him so allegedly there were “gangs” preparing his murder.
The prosecutor’s message came in full victory speech at a hotel south of Guatemala City just minutes after his election victory, and he follows another plan called “Colosio” to take the life of the seed movement candidateas confirmed this week by a report by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR).
The four prosecutors, members of the Extortion Crimes Unit, contacted Arévalo de León and requested a private meeting, where they told him they had received “privileged information” about “criminal gang structures” allegedly aimed at killing him to murder.
The meeting with the employees of the Ministry of State lasted half an hour. While hundreds of people celebrated the progressive party’s historic victory in front of the hotel this Sunday, Arévalo de León did not go out to celebrate the victory with his supporters.
The President-elect was left with no choice but to do so “Rely on private security given existing distrust of government agencies in the current context”, anticipated the IACHR report. In these circumstances, Arévalo de León uses a borrowed car with less armor than is deemed necessary in his case. The lack of party funds has also meant that the vice president-elect, Karen Herreraexpect a car donated by a supporter without the necessary security measures.
The “Colossio Plan”
The alleged conspiracy of gang members It’s not the only plan to assassinate Arévalo de Leónaccording to the IACHR report and the Seed Movement itself. On August 15, just five days before the second round of elections, Arévalo de León’s security team received “worrying information” about a “plan to close him, involving state agents and private individuals.” to murder”.
The information has been confirmed by “at least three sources within state institutions with a high degree of reliability” and that “they do not know each other,” the Organization of American States (OAS) said.
The intended action, based on the assigned name, Repeat the assassination of Mexican candidate Luis Alberto Colosio, who was killed with a gun at a public act before the 1994 elections in the North American country. However, the state of Guatemala has “questioned” the existence of the “Colosio Plan” and classified it as a non-existent threat, according to the IACHR report.
After the government of current President Alejandro Giammattei issued a statement to the IACHR on August 24 calling for “prudence” over “the consequences that unfounded statements may have,” he hired 50 more police officers for the safety of Arévalo de León.
There are plans to assassinate the Seed Movement candidate another scandal in the Guatemalan election processthe most eventful since the introduction of democracy in 1996. According to experts, second place in the elections of June 25 and the subsequent electoral victory of Arévalo de León left the so-called “League of the Corrupt”a group of politicians and businessmen who have controlled the country for several years and did not expect Semilla’s surprise victory.
In the same context and following the same vision of analysts, since July 12, the prosecutor’s office has been trying to stop the candidacy of Arévalo de León for an alleged case of false signatures in the founding of the party, however each time These allegations against Semilla are more contradictory. The leadership of the public ministry is sanctioned by the United States under corruption allegations since 2021, including the Attorney General, Consuelo Porras.
On Friday, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Organization, Antonio Guterresexpressed his “concern” at the “attempts to undermine the results of the elections” that helped Arévalo de León win.
Meanwhile, the elected President of Guatemala Try to stay calm even though you are aware of the situation. “What we have done and are doing is reviewing our security systems to strengthen them, but we are not distracted by such a situation and are continuing with our work plans or with the vice president,” Arévalo de León told local media this week.
The inauguration of the new president is scheduled for January 14 next year for a period of four years, the first for a Social Democrat president in Guatemala’s history.