Thousands of students, indigenous people and members of social groups from Guatemala marched this Thursday in the capital to denounce corruption in the government of President Alejandro Giammattei and a fraud to elect the rector of the only public university in the country.
The demonstrators came from four points in Guatemala City to congregate in the center of the capital, blowing plastic trumpets and shouting slogans against Giammattei and other officials.
“They are protesting against the corruption and impunity that continue to push the Giammattei government and the corrupt pact,” Daniel Pascual, leader of the Peasant Unity Committee (CUC), one of the organizations that called the march, told reporters. She was followed by dozens of police officers.
The protest also denounced a campaign of “criminalization” of opponents, such as the prosecution on Tuesday for money laundering of journalist José Rubén Zamora, head of the newspaper El Periódico, a media outlet that has published information on alleged acts of corruption by Giammattei and of the attorney general, Consuelo Porras.
The conservative president was accused of creating a climate of corruption with Porras, sanctioned last year by the United States, which included her on a list of “corrupt and undemocratic” people, or the Engel List.
The sanction occurred after Porras fired Juan Francisco Sandoval, head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI), considered by Washington to be an “anti-corruption champion.” Sandoval suspected Giammattei was being bribed by Russian businessmen to operate a port on the Caribbean.
“When you do not act against corruption, you are supporting it,” said a banner at the march, which also called for the “high cost of living” due to the increase in the prices of food and medicine, among other basic products.
The election by “fraud” of Walter Mazariegos as rector of the University of San Carlos (USAC), the only public university in Guatemala and with weight in political decisions in the country, was also denounced.
“Corrupt authorities out. USAC defends itself,” read one banner.
In an interview with AFP in July, Ombudsman Jordán Rodas said that Guatemala is going through one of its worst moments of corruption as it is governed by an “authoritarian regime”, with “co-opted” institutions and persecution of prosecutors and judges who investigated mafias.
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