The party of the elected president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arevalo, yesterday Tuesday submitted a request to the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) to cancel the decision taken by the institution the previous day, at the request of a judge, to temporarily revoke the legal status of the faction, a move that they strongly criticized the European Union and the USA.

A lawyer for the Movimiento Semilla (“Seed Movement”) party, Juan Gerardo Guerrero, said he had filed a “cancellation request” with the TSE.

The revocation of his party’s legal status was described as “absolutely illegal” and a continuation of “political persecution” by Mr Arevalos, who was elected president promising to fight corruption, which has plagued Central America’s most populous country for years.

After the first round of the presidential election on June 25, Judge Freddy Oreyana had already ordered the TSE, at the request of prosecutor Rafael Kuruchitse, to revoke Semiya’s legal status and conduct an investigation into alleged irregularities in the registration of its members when was founded in 2017.

The US government believes that Mr. Oreyana and Kuruchitse are “involved in corruption”.

But the Constitutional Court intervened, guaranteeing the holding of the second round on the scheduled date between the two candidates who occupied the first positions, that is, Mr. Arevalos and the former first lady Sandra Torres. The former diplomat won the election cleanly, securing over 60% of the vote. His opponent, whom many Guatemalans describe as corrupt, denounced “fraud” and to this day does not recognize her defeat.

The head of European diplomacy, Giuseppe Borrell, stressed on Tuesday that the EU is “deeply concerned about the ongoing efforts to undermine the election results with selective and arbitrary legal actions”.

While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, for his part, denounced “the continuing actions of those who seek to undermine democracy in Guatemala,” in particular “the efforts made by the prosecution and other actors to suspend the legal status of the president-elect’s political party and to intimidate the electoral authorities”.

According to Mr. Blinken, the US “stands with its partners in the international community and the people of Guatemala (…) opposes these unacceptable actions, including the use of prosecutorial powers against those who seek transparency and accountability ».

The day before Monday, the Organization of American States (OAS) ruled that this move is an “abusive interpretation of the law”, without “any basis or reason proven beyond a reasonable doubt”.

The prosecutions against Sporos, allegedly behind the Attorney General Consuelo Porras – whom Washington also describes as “corrupt” – sparked protests with a central demand for her resignation.

Simultaneously with the decision on the Seed Movement, the TSE validated the election result, the victory of Mr. Arevalo. He will succeed outgoing president Alejandro Yamate on January 14, 2024, ending 12 years of right-wing rule in the Central American country.