On behalf of Canadian civil society and the academic community working with the people of Guatemala, we communicate our deep concern over the attempted coup d’état currently taking place in Guatemala.
Guatemala finds itself at a crossroads between the reestablishment of a faltering democracy or the complete co-optation of the state by political and economic forces linked to criminal structures. The international community’s response to this crisis — and Canada’s — could not be more important.
Since the surprise victory of anti-corruption candidate Bernardo Arévalo in the August 20 presidential election, the “Pact of the Corrupt”, an alliance between the economic elite, ex-military and conservatives which controls most of the Guatemalan state, sought to overturn the results. The inauguration of the new administration and the new congress, which is to take place on January 14, could be prevented by these political forces which see themselves threatened. It is therefore not certain that Arévalo and his team will be authorized to take office.
In the months following Arévalo’s victory, various branches of the Guatemalan state, including the executive branch, much of the legislative branch, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, as well as the attorney general’s office — all deeply compromised with organized crime — took extraordinary measures to block the president-elect from taking office, including a suspension order against Arévalo’s party that won at the polls, the Movimiento Semilla (Seed Movement). Party supporters were arrested and election court judges were also threatened with prosecution.
Added to this are efforts to lift the legal immunity of the president-elect and vice-president-elect, as well as Semilla’s representatives in Congress, to prosecute them on trumped-up charges, such as the expression on social media of support for student demonstrations in favor of democracy. Many defenders and leaders of the fight against corruption have already been indicted and imprisoned, or forced into exile, as part of a worrying perversion of justice in Guatemala underway since the departure of the CICIG (International Commission against impunity in Guatemala) in 2019 and which has increased in the last year.
In response, guided by indigenous ancestral authorities, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to defend the democratic process and the rule of law in Guatemala. Large non-violent protests rocked the country for much of October and November. Yet Congress and the attorney general’s office have only stepped up their assault on democracy, forcing most of the election court judges to leave the country and demanding that the Supreme Court overturn the election.
The ancestral authorities were the subject of reprisals: threats, criminalization and assassinations, including that of the Xinka leader Noé Gomez killed on October 28. Conflict in rural areas is also increasing, with landowners and agribusiness taking advantage of the distraction caused by the questioning of the democratic transition to carry out extrajudicial displacements of indigenous communities.
On December 8, the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) condemned what it called “the attempted coup d’état of the Public Ministry of Guatemala”, through the cancellation of the general elections, which ” constitutes the worst form of democratic breakdown and the consolidation of political fraud against the will of the people.”
The days leading up to the presidential inauguration on January 14 are crucial for Guatemala’s future. If Arévalo manages to take office, he will do so with an overwhelming mandate to roll back corruption and restore the democratic institutions that have been so badly eroded over the past five years.
But if the slow-motion coup that is underway succeeds and Arevalo is prevented from taking office, it will be the final blow to the democratic reconstruction that has been so laboriously built by courageous Guatemalans, with the support of the international community including Canada, after 36 years of armed conflict.
Canada and its allies must make it clear that after January 14, they will not recognize any government in Guatemala other than that of President Bernardo Arévalo. The consequences of a possible overthrow of democracy must also be crystal clear: 1. suspension of bilateral aid; 2. freezing of Guatemalan state assets held abroad; 3. opposition to any further financial aid from multilateral credit institutions, such as the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The alliance involved in the slow coup is already beginning to crumble in the face of continued massive resistance from the Guatemalan people and growing pressure from the international community. If the international consequences of democratic breakdown are made explicit, this could be enough to tip the scales in favor of democracy and hope.
We are counting on the Government of Canada to make a firm statement of support for Arévalo and to denounce the attempted coup in Guatemala.
* This letter is supported by Brisna Caxaj Rowe (Plataforma Canadá de Guatemaltecxs exiliadxs por terrorismo de estado); Gerald E. Rowe (Red International Solidarity with Guatemala); Tito Medina (Todos por / All for / Tous pour Guatemala); Grahame Russell (Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia Rights Action); Ignacio Segura (Estamos aquí / We are here / We are here); Stephen Brown (professor of political science, University of Ottawa); Simon Granovsky-Larsen (associate professor, Politics and International Studies, University of Regina); Mary Ellen Davis (Part-time faculty, School of Cinema, Concordia University); Lazar Konforti (researcher, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Unidad Regional Sureste); Brisna Caxaj Rowe (educator, Plataforma Guatemaltecas-Guatemaltecos Exiliados por Terrorismo de Estado); Catherine Nolin (professor of Geography, University of Northern British Columbia); Filiberto Celada (Decolonized Solidarity Network); Chris Aylward (National President, Public Service Alliance of Canada); W. George Lovell (professor of Geography, Queen’s University); Laura Macdonald (professor, Carleton University); Sabina Harpe (past educational administrator, now retired, Richmond School District, British Columbia); Mary Dohe (retired); Maurice Shapiro (retired Woodworker, BCCASA); Kevin Gould (professor, Concordia University); Mylène Coderre (immigration researcher, National Institute of Public Health); Arturo Ezquerro-Cañete (Maritimes coordinator, Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network); Marc-André Anzueto (professor of international development, University of Quebec en Outaouais); Shin Imai (professor emeritus, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University); Sarah Ringdahl (retired); Étienne Roy Grégoire (professor, University of Quebec at Chicoutimi)