The agenda of Almagro’s visit has not been shared with the press. The Associated Press consulted with Mónica Reyes, from the OAS communication team, about the points that the secretary’s visit will include and said that she had no information on the matter.
On Wednesday, he met behind closed doors with the magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to find out how the electoral process has developed.
Almagro arrived in the country on Tuesday, invited by the Guatemalan government, after countries like Colombia and the United States unified positions and concerns about the situation of the Central American nation after the presidential elections on June 25. They asked to be vigilant against “attacks on the autonomy” of the electoral body by the Public Ministry.
The presidency reported Tuesday that Almagro met with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, who informed him that the electoral process “has been guaranteed” in terms of security, financial budgeting, and infrastructure to carry out the elections.
The government also said that it “reiterates its commitment to guarantee that governance agreements can be reached with civil society during the transition process, in full transparency with the accompaniment and observance of the international community and the OAS.”
However, the Prosecutor’s Office has 13 complaints or open files, most of them generated after the first electoral round that confirmed that the ballot on August 20 between the Seed Movement, headed by Bernardo Arévalo, and the National Unity of Hope, with Sandra Torres . One of them will be the replacement for President Giammattei.
The investigations have focused on Semilla, which is accused of alleged irregularities in the signatures presented when it was established as a party, despite the fact that the political movement completed all the procedures and requirements that the electoral authority demanded to participate in the presidential elections.
The Public Ministry has also obtained arrest warrants from a judge against Semilla militants and workers of the electoral body for refusing to suspend the legal personality of the party, even having a provisional amparo from the Constitutional Court as protection against these interventions.
The prosecutor’s offices against impunity, administrative crimes and electoral crimes have also requested information on who is part of the voting boards, the electoral boards that guarded the vote and who are the data entry clerks who entered the data into the computer system to find out the results. .
On Wednesday Almagro also met with the attorney general and some prosecutors to learn the details of the investigation. In the afternoon, the OAS Secretary General was scheduled to meet with the candidate Arévalo.
After the meeting with the Prosecutor’s Office, the latter issued a statement in which it includes the justification for its actions. “During the meeting, Mr. Almagro was able to find out from the official source the multiple illegalities that have been noticed through the investigation of the case,” the message began.
And he cites as irregularities the “falsification of signatures and names on the adhesion sheets of approximately 5,000 people, the adhesion of at least 12 deceased people, the assignment of fingerprints to several people, irregularities in the adhesion sheets, among other illegalities that seriously violated the human rights of hundreds of Guatemalans.”
The Prosecutor’s Office also showed the investigation file on Semilla to the OAS secretary and assured him that it would continue with the investigations.
In contrast, the Semilla party has denounced that the Prosecutor’s Office does not give it access to the investigation file, which makes its defense difficult. After raids on the TSE, the Prosecutor’s Office seized the original documents of the formation of the party, a fact that was also denounced by the party, saying that there was no adequate chain of custody, for which reason they distrust the Prosecutor’s Office.
For Luis Mack, a professor of Politics at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, Almagro’s visit has its reasons and intentions. “Almagro is an ally of any government, he has always been like that; perhaps that is why the government strategy of asking him to come to the country to find out about the situation,” Mack said.
The academic said that he hopes to be wrong, but I think that the intention of the government is to buy time so as not to receive sanctions from the OAS or for the democratic charter to be applied, which is a strong call from that body to the government to defend democracy.
“It may be that the strategy they are considering is that, since the secretary is an ally, fearful and pro-government, some type of sanction or sentence is temporarily deactivated. Also, if he presents some kind of lukewarm report, nothing will happen; Everything is very measured ”, considered Mack. “In any case, it is pressure on the government, but on the diplomatic side, the sanctions can be deactivated.”
On Wednesday, a poll of voting intentions was made public, placing Bernardo Arévalo of the Movimiento Semilla as a favorite with 63%, compared to candidate Sandra Torres with 37% intentions.
The survey was carried out by the pollster Cid Gallup, at the request of the Guatemalan Foundation Libertad y Desarrollo, between July 18 and 27, 2023 with a sample of 1,242 citizens over the age of 18 eligible to vote and with a confidence level of 95% and error of +-2.8%.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
