The IACHR urges the Guatemalan authorities to ensure the principle of separation of powers
MADRID, July 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The permanent representative of the United States to the Organization of American States (OAS), Frank Mora, expressed his concern this Friday about the “invasion” at the headquarters of the Registry of Citizens of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of Guatemala and about the pressure exerted against the Seed Movement.
“The United States joins the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressing its concern over the arrest warrants issued against members of the Movimiento Semilla party, whose headquarters have been raided, according to official sources,” Mora wrote on his official Twitter account.
In the same publication, the US representative to the OAS has defended that “Guatemalans deserve the right to vote for the (different) candidates without interference.”
For its part, the IACHR also urged the Guatemalan authorities this Friday to “guarantee political participation in the general elections and avoid undue interference.”
“The IACHR urges the State of Guatemala to ensure the principle of separation of powers and guarantee the right to political participation in accordance with national regulations and inter-American standards,” the commission said in a statement that highlighted the “lack of independence of the Public Ministry and its attorney general.”
In this sense, the agency has also called for respect for “the popular will expressed by the Guatemalan people in the first round elections, as stated by the OAS Electoral Observation Mission in the country.”
Likewise, the IACHR has expressed its suspicion that the suspension order of the Seed Movement would be “in contravention of the national legislation itself,” referring to the Electoral and Political Parties Law. Said law “expressly regulates that a party may not be suspended after an election has been called and until it has been held.”
In this way, “the arbitrary or illegal exclusion of candidacies, in addition to affecting political rights, has a negative impact on the free expression of the will of the electorate, which is a serious consequence for democracy,” the IACHR has argued.
Both the Electoral Observation Missions of the OAS and the European Union have denounced the “intense judicialization” of the electoral process in Guatemala. Specifically, the EOM-EU has indicated that the general elections had been held “in a context of serious deterioration of the rule of law and judicial independence, as well as serious restrictions on freedom of expression and of the press.”
These statements by the US and the IACHR come after the Guatemalan Public Ministry confirmed this Thursday that a “raid” had been carried out at the headquarters of the Registry of Citizens of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of Guatemala and the arrest of Eleonora Castillo, deputy director of the entity that is acting as its interim leader, had been ordered.
