US and Brazil warn of attempt to stop Guatemala president-elect taking power

Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent
Wed, 20 September 2023 at 11:56 am GMT-5·3-min read

International concern over the future of Guatemala’s democracy is growing, as Brazil’s president warned of a possible coup to stop the president-elect taking power and the US denounced unprecedented attempts to undermine the Central American country’s election result.

The centre-left anti-corruption crusader Bernardo Arévalo was elected Guatemala’s new president last month. This week thousands of supporters took to the streets to protest against alleged attempts to block his inauguration in January.

Last week, Arévalo – the son of Guatemala’s first democratically elected president, Juan José Arévalo – temporarily pulled out of the transition process after government officials raided electoral facilities where ballot boxes were being stored. Arévalo has accused corrupt officials and politicians of launching “a plan to break the constitutional order and subvert democracy”. “A coup d’état [is] under way,” he claimed earlier this month after attempts to suspend his party, the Movimiento Semilla (Seed Movement).

Addressing the UN general assembly on Tuesday, the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, echoed Arévalo’s warning, citing the crisis in Guatemala after recent “institutional ruptures” in the African nations of Burkina Faso, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Sudan. “In Guatemala, there’s the risk of a coup, which would prevent the winner of democratic elections taking office,” Lula said.

More:
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/us-brazil-warn-attempt-stop-130207773.html