Incoming Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo takes the oath of workplace throughout his swearing-in ceremony in Guatemala Metropolis, early Monday, Jan. 15, 2024.
Moises Castillo/AP
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Incoming Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo takes the oath of workplace throughout his swearing-in ceremony in Guatemala Metropolis, early Monday, Jan. 15, 2024.
Moises Castillo/AP
GUATEMALA CITY — Bernardo Arévalo was sworn in as Guatemala’s president on Monday minutes after midnight regardless of months of efforts to derail his inauguration, together with foot-dragging and rising tensions proper up till the switch of energy.
Arévalo arrives within the presidency after successful August’s elections by a cushty margin. However nothing has been easy since, with Legal professional Common Consuelo Porras and the institution forces observers say she represents throwing one authorized problem after one other at Arévalo and his get together.
“It fills me with deep honor to imagine this lofty duty, displaying that our democracy has the mandatory power to withstand and that by way of unity and belief we are able to change the political panorama in Guatemala,” Arévalo mentioned in his first deal with as president.
He summarized his administration’s tenet as: “There can’t be democracy with out social justice and social justice can not prevail with out democracy.”
Regardless of a whole lot of Arévalo’s supporters pressuring lawmakers to comply with the structure, even clashing with riot police exterior the congress constructing Sunday, the inauguration course of dragged for hours earlier than he took the oath of workplace simply previous midnight.
A progressive academic-turned-politician and son of a Guatemalan president credited with implementing key social reforms within the mid-Twentieth century, Arévalo takes workplace with expectations of confronting Guatemala’s entrenched corruption. Nevertheless it is not going to be simple.
He has little help in congress and Porras’ time period as the highest regulation enforcement official extends to 2026, although Arévalo has mentioned considered one of his first orders of enterprise shall be to request her resignation.
Supporters had been ready hours for a festive inauguration celebration in Guatemala Metropolis’s emblematic Plaza de la Constitucion and have been fed up with one more delay, sweeping police roughly out of their manner earlier than gathering exterior congress demanding legislators cease delaying and title the delegation that should attend the ceremony.
A supporter of Guatemalan President-elect Bernardo Arévalo celebrates that lawmakers voted for a Seed Motion member to be their new Congress president, Samuel Perez, as a part of the method earlier than Arévalo’s swearing-in ceremony, exterior the Nationwide Palace in Guatemala Metropolis, Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024.
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A supporter of Guatemalan President-elect Bernardo Arévalo celebrates that lawmakers voted for a Seed Motion member to be their new Congress president, Samuel Perez, as a part of the method earlier than Arévalo’s swearing-in ceremony, exterior the Nationwide Palace in Guatemala Metropolis, Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024.
Santiago Billy/AP
“If they do not swear him in, we, the folks, will swear him in,” mentioned one of many demonstrators, Dina Juc, the mayor of the indigenous village of Utatlàn Sololá.
Congress, which was alleged to attend the inauguration as a particular session of the legislature, engaged in bitter infighting over who to acknowledge as a part of the congressional delegation, as members yelled at one another.
The management fee tasked with doing that was filled with old-guard opponents of Arévalo, and the delay was seen as a tactic to attract out the inauguration and weaken Arévalo.
Arévalo wrote in his social media accounts that “they’re making an attempt to break democracy with illegalities, inconsequential particulars and abuses of energy.”
Representatives from the U.S. authorities and Group of American States referred to as on the congress to respect Guatemala’s structure.
Minutes earlier than midnight, the particular session of congress was referred to as into session.
Porras had tried each authorized trick within the e book to place Arévalo on trial or in jail earlier than he might take workplace. And Arévalo’s get together will not have a majority in Congress and should not even have formal recognition there.
Arévalo is an instructional, diplomat and the son of a progressive president from the center of the Twentieth century, and his election marked a political awakening in a inhabitants weary of corruption and impunity.
“I really feel enthusiastic, as a result of we’re lastly reaching the tip of this lengthy and torturous course of,” Arévalo mentioned earlier than his inauguration. “Guatemalan society has developed the dedication to say ‘no’ to those political-criminal elites.”
However as a lot as Arévalo desires to alter issues, he faces monumental obstacles. His anti-corruption stance and outsider standing are threats to deep-rooted pursuits within the Central American nation, observers say.
Nonetheless, the very fact he bought this far is a testomony to worldwide help and condemnation of the myriad makes an attempt to disqualify him.
For a lot of Guatemalans, the inauguration represented not solely the fruits of Arévalo’s victory on the polls, but additionally their profitable protection of the nation’s democracy.
That Arévalo made it to inside a day of his inauguration was largely owed to 1000’s of Guatemala’s Indigenous folks, who took to the streets final 12 months to protest and demand that Porras and her prosecutors respect the Aug. 20 vote. Many had referred to as for her resignation, however her time period does not finish till 2026 and it isn’t clear whether or not Arévalo can rid himself of her.
Prosecutors sought to droop Arévalo’s Seed Motion get together — a transfer that might stop its legislators from holding management positions in Congress — and strip Arévalo of his immunity 3 times.
On Friday, his selection for vp, Karin Herrera, introduced that the Constitutional Courtroom had granted her an injunction heading off a supposed arrest order. She was additionally sworn in early Monday.
Prosecutors have alleged that the Seed Motion engaged in misdeeds in amassing signatures to register as a celebration years earlier, that its leaders inspired a monthlong occupation of a public college, and that there was fraud within the election. Worldwide observers have denied that.
One key was that Arévalo bought early and robust help from the worldwide neighborhood. The European Union, Group of American States and the U.S. authorities repeatedly demanded respect for the favored vote.
Washington has gone additional, sanctioning Guatemalan officers and personal residents suspected of undermining the nation’s democracy.
On Thursday, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, Brian A. Nichols, mentioned the aggression towards Arévalo will not probably cease together with his inauguration.
