Guatemala: Leftists Mobilize Against Conservative President Alejandro Giammattei
Leftist masked rioters took the streets of Guatemala on Tuesday to protest against the nation’s conservative president, Alejandro Giammattei, and his government.
The protesters – who were composed of students, members of social organizations, and indigenous communities – are demanding an end to Giammattei’s administration, alleging that it is exacerbating inflation, corruption, and “authoritarian regression” in the government.
Guatemalan transit authorities noted that protesters blocked access to at least 10 roads across the Central American nation. By Tuesday, afternoon all of the blockades had been cleared.
Following the end of the protests on Tuesday, the “Asamblea Social y Popular de Guatemala” (Social and Popular Assembly), which encompasses most of the protesters along with other organizations involved, announced its intention to prepare and carry out more rounds of protests against Giammattei’s government.
The Social and Popular Assembly describes itself as advocating for a new Guatemalan constitution and a government that “guarantees the rights of Mother Earth and all living things, in the name of a real democracy, with participative justice that recognizes the diversity of the peoples, struggles, proposals, and organizational forms.”
“The current capitalist and state-centered model is organized so that the rich and power may rob, contaminate, and appropriate to themselves with impunity water and all resources, profitizing them and destroying life,” the group’s website reads.
In addition to general opposition against Giammattei, the protesters are objecting to the arrest of José Zamora Marroquín, a Guatemalan journalist detained on July 29 on charges of money laundering, influence peddling, and extortion. Zamora, who is the director of the newspaper El Periódico (“The Newspaper”), is considered to be one of Giammattei’s most prominent critics.
Zamora denies the accusations, claiming them a “set-up” and part of a persecution campaign due to El Periodico’s investigations of corruption in both Giammattei’s government and other administrations.
Rafael Curruchiche, the prosecutor in charge of the case against Zamora, stated on July 29 that Zamora “is arrested as a businessman, not as a journalist.”
This is not the first time Giammattei’s government has faced a wave of protests. In 2020, rioters demanding the resignation of Giammattei stormed the nation’s congressional building located in Guatemala City and set fire to it.
On July 30, President Giammattei’s military entourage was attacked by gunmen during preparations for a scheduled presidential visit to the Huehuetenango province, located near the Mexican border. One of the attackers was wounded by the Guatemalan military while the rest of the attackers fled toward Mexico.
Leftist protesters and rioters have engaged in similar practices against other governments in the region, such as that of Colombia’s then-President Iván Duque, which prompted civilians to take up arms to fend off rioters. Leftist rioters have burned down neighborhoods in Chile under both former center-right President Sebastián Piñera and current far-left President Gabriel Boric, and in Ecuador against president Guillermo Lasso.
Giammattei, a hardline conservative, currently presides over one of the few right-wing governments in Latin America, and has fiercely expressed his opposition to left-wing governments in the region such as the socialist regime in Venezuela and its dictator, Nicolas Maduro. In an exclusive interview to Breitbart News in June, he asserted that buying oil from Maduro would be akin to “nourishing the devil.”
“Going to buy oil from Venezuela, from Maduro who has committed crimes against the Venezuelan people, who has the biggest immigration [crisis], that is negotiating with the devil and that is breaking with [my] principles,” he said.
Corruption, one of Guatemala’s long-standing issues, has been a complicated matter for Giammattei’s government. While he has pledged his commitment to fight against corruption, his administration has been accused of corruption in the past.
Judges presiding over corruption cases involving Giammattei left the country, claiming they have been forced to flee by pressure from Guatemala’s Attorney General. The Biden administration sanctioned Giammattei’s Attorney General, Maria Consuelo Porras, on May 2022, accusing Porras of corruption and of obstruction of anti-corruption investigations. Porras has become a source of frustration in ties between Washington and Guatemala City, as Giammattei has complained that Biden officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris, have preferred to pressure his government regarding her appointment than talk about the Central American migrant crisis, drug trafficking, or other urgent issues.
