Dozens of people demonstrated this Wednesday against the intention of Guatemala’s attorney general, Consuelo Porras, to re-elect herself to the post, despite allegations that she is directing a persecution against independent justice operators and having been sanctioned by the United States.
“We have come to reject the possible re-election of Consuelo Porras,” indigenous activist Daniel Pascual told reporters in front of the Supreme Court of Justice, in the center of the capital.
Porras arrived at the Court to be interviewed by the commission that evaluates the applicants to lead the Public Ministry for the period 2022-2026.
The Mayan leader accused Porras of an “aggressive persecution” against judges and former prosecutors who led corruption processes.
“Consuelo out” indicated several banners raised by the protesters, who also carried puppets of the attorney general. They also rejected the participation of other candidates considered as “dark characters”.
The Nominating Commission, which evaluates some twenty applicants for attorney general, will define a list of six candidates on April 18, among whom President Alejandro Giammattei will later choose.
Porras was sanctioned by Washington last September by accusing her of interfering in the investigation of acts of corruption and denied her entry into US territory.
The sanction occurred after Porras dismissed in July Juan Francisco Sandoval, then head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI), who left for the United States fearing for his life, a path that other former officials of that instance have followed.
Sandoval, described as an “anti-corruption champion” by the United States, said that he was asked not to investigate President Giammattei without the consent of prosecutor Porras.
Recently, the international community once again showed its rejection of the actions of the Public Ministry of Porras after the arrest in February of five members of the FECI and a representative of the now-defunct UN International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), which it worked between 2007 and 2019.
Those who led the local anti-mafia investigation teams, including Sandoval, considered that the arrests were due to a “revenge” against justice operators who faced corruption, a statement rejected by the Porras team.
“The United States is deeply concerned about Porras’ continuing and brazen attacks” on the judicial system “through politically motivated arrests and detentions of current and former public servants fighting corruption,” said Ned Price, spokesman for the Department of Justice. State, in a statement released in early March.
