[News] Guatemala blocks leftist Indigenous leader from presidential race, in ‘electoral coup’

[Anti-Imperialist News]

geopoliticaleconomy.com
<https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/02/06/guatemala-blocks-leftist-indigenous-leader-from-presidential-race-in-electoral-coup/>
Guatemala blocks leftist Indigenous leader from presidential race, in
‘electoral coup’
Jimmy Zúñiga Wallace and Ben Norton - February 6, 2023
------------------------------
[image: image.png]

Guatemala’s notoriously corrupt right-wing government has blocked a
prominent leftist Indigenous leader from running in the June 2023
presidential election, in a move that international observers have
condemned as an “electoral coup”.

Nearly half of Guatemalans (44%) identify as Indigenous
<https://www.telesurtv.net/bloggers/Guatemala-Estado-restringe-derechos-politicos-a-los-pueblos-originarios-20230206-0001.html>.
The Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP) is a left-wing party
that was created to represent the First Nations who have for so long been
ignored by Guatemala’s political system.

The MLP is led by Thelma Cabrera, a social movement activist and human
rights defender from the Maya Mam community. She has pledged to fight
poverty in Guatemala (one of the poorest countries in the region), resist
neoliberalism, and establish a plurinational state
<https://prensacomunitaria.org/2019/05/de-la-resistencia-contra-el-neoliberalismo-a-la-busqueda-de-la-fundacion-del-estado-plurinacional/>
that
gives full rights to Indigenous nations, like Bolivia.

The newly created MLP party ran for the first time in the 2019 presidential
election. Cabrera came in fourth place, winning more than 10% of the vote
in the first round, compared to just 14% for current right-wing President
Alejandro Giammattei.

Since then, the MLP has only become more popular, gaining support across
Guatemala. Giammattei, a staunch conservative and wealthy dual citizen of
Italy, has seen the growth of the MLP as a threat.

The MLP’s vice-presidential candidate is Jordán Rodas Andrade. He was
appointed Guatemala’s human rights ombudsman in 2017. Before his term ended
in 2022, Rodas had become well known for his criticism of President
Giammattei and the blatant corruption in his government.

Upon leaving the position, Rodas condemned Guatemala’s wealthy corporate
oligarchs. “They think they are the plantation owners
<https://elpais.com/internacional/2022-08-05/los-grandes-empresarios-se-creen-los-duenos-de-la-finca-le-han-hecho-mucho-dano-a-guatemala.html>.
They have done so much damage to this country”, he said.

Aceptamos el reto y la responsabilidad de los delegados/as del MLP.
pic.twitter.com/BpKjFV42jQ <https://t.co/BpKjFV42jQ>

— Thelma Cabrera Pérez DD. HH. (@ThelmaCabreraP2) December 28, 2022
<https://twitter.com/ThelmaCabreraP2/status/1608185384525090819?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

In late January 2023, Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) blocked
Cabrera and Rodas from participating in the upcoming election, which will
be held on June 25.

Guatemalan social movement activists and international observers have
reported that the TSE is deeply politicized and acts in the interests of
Giammattei and the country’s powerful oligarchs.

Cabrera and her MLP party filed an appeal, but on February 2, the TSE ruled
against them, officially banning them from the race.

The Guatemalan electoral authority claimed they cannot run because their
application was “invalid”.

Cabrera shared the completed paperwork
<https://twitter.com/ThelmaCabreraP2/status/1617181680912957440> on
Twitter, insisting that “we fulfilled all the legal requirements”. Rodas
also explained that he submitted all the required paperwork, and a review
of his record found no legal cases or complaints against him.

“Any additional requirement is not found in the law; it cannot be invoked
to avoid my candidacy and violate my right to be elected”, he said.

Cualquier requisito adicional no se encuentra en ley, no puede ser invocado
para evitar mi candidatura y violentar mi derecho a ser electo. La
existencia de denuncias espurias no es impedimento para ser inscrito. Al
revisar el QR de mi finiquito no registra ninguna denuncia.
pic.twitter.com/eC5KcYEgpJ <https://t.co/eC5KcYEgpJ>

— Jordán Rodas Andrade (@JordanRodas) January 29, 2023
<https://twitter.com/JordanRodas/status/1619510532415066114?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Guatemala’s ‘electoral coup’ bans leftists while allowing convicted drug
money launderers and family members of war criminals to run for office

Hundreds of activists protested at the TSE, condemning the electoral
court’s decision. An MLP supporter said, “If you all don’t register our
candidates, there won’t be elections
<https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/guatemala-elecciones_seguidores-de-l%C3%ADder-ind%C3%ADgena-exigen-se-apruebe-su-candidatura-en-guatemala/48254916>”.
Their movement has vowed to go on strike and hold large demonstrations
until the decision is reversed.

Even Western government-funded organizations that are deeply biased against
the Latin American left have warned that the Giammattei government is
increasingly authoritarian.

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA),
which is funded by the US government
<https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/reference_docs/International_IDEA-Annual_Review_2021.pdf>
and multiple European states, has long shown prejudice in support of the
Latin American right. But IDEA’s regional director, Daniel Zovatto,
admitted that TSE’s ban of Cabrera and Rodas is a kind of “electoral coup
<https://elpais.com/internacional/2023-02-03/el-tribunal-electoral-de-guatemala-rechaza-las-candidaturas-de-la-formula-de-izquierda-critica-con-el-gobierno-de-giammattei.html>
”.

“The decision declaring inadmissible the appeal for annulment by the MLP,
leaving the Cabrera-Rodas ticket out of the electoral contest, is an
‘electoral coup’ that corrupts the integrity and credibility of the
elections”, Zovatto said.

Vicenta Jerónimo, the lone MLP representative in Guatemala’s congress,
referred to the struggle as “a battle of the oligarchy against the peoples”.

“That is because we also know that all state institutions are co-opted in
the hands of corrupt thieves in this country”, she said.

In one of the many demonstrations that have taken place throughout the
country, Jerónimo stated, “We also see in the Supreme Electoral Tribunal
that they have registered children of the genocide that murdered my
parents, my grandparents, my uncles in the armed conflict”.

 #Ahora <https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ahora?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> |
La diputada del MLP, Vicenta Jerónimo, está frente al TSE acompañado a
simpatizantes del partido que exigen la inscripción del binomio Thelma
Cabrera y Jordán Rodas. pic.twitter.com/3G2aljhz37 <https://t.co/3G2aljhz37>

— Plaza Pública (@PlazaPublicaGT) February 2, 2023
<https://twitter.com/PlazaPublicaGT/status/1621172857509392384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Jerónimo was alluding to Zury Ríos, a right-wing presidential candidate who
is the daughter of Guatemala’s former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt.

The United States supported the Ríos Montt regime in the 1980s, as he
massacred Indigenous communities. In 2013, he was sentenced for crimes
against humanity and genocide.

An independent truth commission found that, during Guatemala’s civil war,
the US-backed military carried out 93% of civilian killings
<https://www.usip.org/publications/1997/02/truth-commission-guatemala>,
whereas socialist guerrillas were responsible for just 3%.

It is estimated that as a result of the genocide perpetrated by Ríos Montt,
at least 200,000 children became orphans and around 5,000 more disappeared.

The vast majority of attacks perpetrated by the Guatemalan military against
the population were against civilians who had no connection to the conflict.

Ironically, Zury Ríos launched her presidential campaign for the 2023
elections despite having a constitutional ban that kept her out of the race
in 2019
<https://www.prensalibre.com/guatemala/politica/zury-rios-queda-fuera-de-la-contienda/>,
due to her close ties with her father.

But the TSE is now allowing Zury Ríos to run
<https://forbesenespanol.com/centroamerica/2023/02/04/tribunal-de-guatemala-da-luz-verde-a-candidatura-presidencial-de-hija-de-dictador-rios-montt>.
The same electoral body that once banned the proud, unapologetic daughter
of a convicted war criminal is today blocking the candidacy of an
Indigenous leader and prominent human rights defender.

Madre mía te recuerdo hoy desde tu tierra, esto es por ti, esto es por
Guatemala . #Chimaltenango
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chimaltenango?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
#Tecpán
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Tecp%C3%A1n?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
#AhoraSiElPuebloManda
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/AhoraSiElPuebloManda?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
pic.twitter.com/W0DK86tL9s <https://t.co/W0DK86tL9s>

— Zury Rios (@ZuryxGuate) February 4, 2023
<https://twitter.com/ZuryxGuate/status/1621928999332024322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Likewise, the TSE has allowed wealthy right-wing businessman Manuel
Baldizón to run in the 2023 elections, despite the fact that he was
imprisoned in the United States for laundering drug money, and deported to
Guatemala
<https://lahora.gt/nacionales/diego/2023/02/05/baldizon-dice-que-pudo-quedarse-en-estados-unidos-pero-fue-deportado/>
in 2022.

Baldizón is running for congress
<https://lahora.gt/nacionales/hquino/2023/02/05/cambio-proclama-a-su-binomio-presidencial-manuel-baldizon-e-hijo-buscan-llegar-al-congreso/>,
as part of the right-wing Cambio party. His son Jorge Eduardo Baldizón
Vargas is also a congressional candidate, and their fellow family member
Álvaro Manuel Trujillo Baldizón is running for president.
Why is the Guatemalan oligarchy afraid of Thelma Cabrera and Jordán Rodas?

When Thelma Cabrera won more than 10% of the vote in the first round of the
2019 election, coming just a few points shy of making the run-off, she
frightened Guatemala’s oligarchy.

Among the ideas she was advocating for included recovering territories
exploited by agribusiness and extractive corporations, creating an
anti-monopoly law, asserting collective rights of the lands of Indigenous
peoples, and reducing poverty in one of the poorest countries in the region.

These proposals are very popular among working-class Guatemalans. This
explains the large protests the country has seen in response to the TSE ban.

#Elecciones2023
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Elecciones2023?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
Jordán Rodas: las “cortes deberán restaurar nuestros derechos”.

Luego que el TSE rechazara la inscripción de Thelma Cabrera y Jordán Rodas,
el ex PDH anunció que el proceso jurídico lo trasladarán a la CSJ.

@iespinoza_gt <https://twitter.com/iespinoza_gt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
https://t.co/o4hGbZNjjw

— PrensaComunitaria (@PrensaComunitar) February 3, 2023
<https://twitter.com/PrensaComunitar/status/1621565496129724417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Cabrera is also a supporter of Latin American integration, and has praised
other left-wing governments in the region.

Under Giammattei, Guatemala recognized US-appointed coup leader Juan Guaidó
<https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/01/16/end-juan-guaido-venezuela-coup/>
as supposed “interim president” of Venezuela. In 2019, he unsuccessfully
tried to enter Venezuela using his Italian passport, hoping to meet with
Guaidó.

Guatemala’s right-wing regime is one of the very few governments in Latin
America that has supported Ukraine in the NATO proxy war against Russia
<https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/01/29/latin-america-ukraine-weapons-brazil-colombia-argentina/>.
Cabrera criticized Giammattei for visiting Kiev and posing for photos with
its Western-backed leader Volodymyr Zelensky.

 #Guate <https://twitter.com/hashtag/Guate?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> El
caporal del @CACIFGuatemala
<https://twitter.com/CACIFGuatemala?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> Candil en la
calle, obscuridad en su casa… pic.twitter.com/Kz5zppDBuu
<https://t.co/Kz5zppDBuu>

— Thelma Cabrera Pérez DD. HH. (@ThelmaCabreraP2) July 28, 2022
<https://twitter.com/ThelmaCabreraP2/status/1552668806375526402?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

The next step for Cabrera and her running mate Jordán Rodas will be to
appeal the TSE’s decision at Guatemala’s Supreme Court of Justice.

In the mean time, their Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples is
organizing protests, demanding systemic change in the country.
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