'A new spring': Arévalo of Guatemala assumes the presidency after delays in Congress | Politics News

Guatemala City, Guatemala – When she was a child, Joaquina Pérez says that her mother always told her that Juan José Arévalo was the best president in the country, since he promoted progressive reforms in the Central American country between 1945 and 1950.

Decades later, the 63-year-old was overcome with emotion as she traveled 193 kilometers (120 miles) from her home in the southwestern city of Retalhuleu with other members of the local pro-democracy movement to see the son of the former president, Bernardo. Arévalo takes office as the new president of Guatemala.

“We are happy because we have high hopes [Bernardo] Arévalo,” Pérez told Al Jazeera in the Central Plaza of Guatemala City.

“We saw an opportunity to [change] with the Semilla Movement and with Arévalo,” he said, referring to the president-elect's popular anti-corruption platform that has garnered widespread support throughout the impoverished Central American nation. “That's why we're here.”

On Sunday, around midnight, Arévalo was finally sworn in as Guatemala's president after months of efforts by the country's ruling elite and a conservative-leaning Congress to derail his rise to power, despite his landslide victory in a second election. returned in August against businesswoman and former first lady Sandra Torres.

But the inauguration came after hours of delay while Congress negotiated the formation of a new Board of Directors, the body that guides the sessions of the legislature and helps shape its agenda. An atmosphere of joy and celebration on the streets of Guatemala City briefly gave way to anger. Earlier in the day, live music was heard throughout the historic center of Guatemala City, as thousands of people like Pérez traveled from all over the country, some sleeping in the plaza the night before, to witness the swearing-in.

As the hours passed, they gathered in front of the Congress building to protest the delays after tearing down police barriers around Congress. The United States, the European Union and the Organization of American States, among others, issued messages reaffirming his belief in Arévalo's election and asking him to take the oath.

“We need this to happen right now,” Ingrid Arana, a 53-year-old resident of Guatemala City, on the periphery of the protests, told Al Jazeera. “Time has passed and no decision has been made. Those in Congress have not finished the session.”

“Arévalo represents a new spring for the country,” he said. “A great opportunity for Guatemala, which will improve the conditions that have existed [we live in] for so much corruption.”

Late in the afternoon, Congress agreed to recognize the Semilla Movement party days after temporarily suspending it and insisting that its lawmakers join the legislature as independent members. Arévalo's party also won the presidency of Congress, giving it influence in shaping the body's agenda.

However, the last-minute obstacles to his inauguration only underscored the challenges he faces as he tries to reform a political system where many of those in power feel threatened by Arévalo.

external candidate

The 65-year-old career academic and diplomat-turned-politician has long spoken out against corruption in the Central American country and campaigned on a promise to revive trust in state institutions that have abandoned communities for decades.

“Recovering trust in state institutions is the fundamental contribution to having a stable future in our country,” Arévalo told Al Jazeera in an interview in July 2023 during a campaign stop.

Arévalo was an outside progressive candidate before the June 25 general election, placing eighth with less than 3 percent of the vote. But he surprised in second place, before winning the second round against Torres.

His Semilla Movement party was born from the 2015 mass protests against corruption in the administration of then-president Otto Pérez Molina. “It is an immense joy,” Lenina García, a former student leader and now learning director at the nonprofit Instituto 25A who participated in the 2015 protests, told Al Jazeera, speaking of her victory and rise to the presidency on Sunday. “From 2015 until today we can see how citizens have categorically rejected impunity and corruption,” she stated.

Prolonged political crisis

Attacks against Arévalo and his platform began shortly after his surprise success in the general election and increased after his victory in the second round.

In July 2023, prosecutors led by Attorney General María Consuelo Porras and Rafael Curruchiche, head of the Public Ministry's Special Prosecutor's Office against Impunity, sought to suspend the legal status of Arévalo's party over allegations of irregularities in the collection of signatures by part of the Seed Movement. register as a political party.

Following the victory in the second round, prosecutors raided the offices of the Semilla Movement and the facilities of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, confiscating confidential documents, including official ballots, raising concerns of electoral interference.

Prosecutors filed requests with the Supreme Court to remove the immunity of Arévalo, his vice president-elect Karin Herrera and other party members for their alleged involvement in stoking protests at the country's only national public university, the University of San Carlos in 2022. The Supreme Court has not yet recognized the requests, but prosecutors have tried to move forward with the case anyway.

Porras and prosecutors have denied that they are not trying to interfere in the elections, but on December 8, Curruchiche requested in a press conference that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal annul the election results. The head of Guatemala's electoral body responded to the request by declaring that the results were “official and unalterable.”

people protest

Almost all attempts to attack the democratic process were quickly met with protests, but beginning on October 2, indigenous leaders began massive nationwide mobilizations led by indigenous leaders to defend democracy. Protesters have gathered for more than 100 days outside the attorney general's office, demanding he resign and respect the results.

“Our objective was clear, we wanted to recover our democracy and the institutions of the state,” Jorge González, a member of the Ancestral Authorities of Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, who has participated in the protests since October 2, told Al Jazeera.

“And it is thanks to all the efforts of all the people of Guatemala that this coup d'état did not take place,” he stated.

Meanwhile, the United States and the EU imposed sanctions on Porras, Curruchiche and others who were trying to block the transition of power to Arévalo.

On December 14, Guatemala's Constitutional Court – the country's highest court – confirmed the election results and ruled that Arévalo and the other elected officials must take office on January 14.

“In the end, the checks and balances worked,” Edgar Ortiz, a Guatemalan constitutional lawyer and political analyst who was among those who approached the court, told Al Jazeera.

“[Our] “Democracy is not really in very good shape,” he said. “But in the end it withstood the worst-case scenario.”

Persistent crisis

Arévalo's rise to power does not mean that the political crisis is likely to abate.

Arévalo must confront a political system in which corruption has become even more entrenched following the 2019 closure of the United Nations-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, commonly known as CICIG. Since then, dozens of anti-corruption prosecutors, judges, human rights defenders and journalists have been forced into exile due to political persecution.

But Arévalo has repeatedly defied the odds. For the moment, there is optimism among his followers.

“We are going to achieve change, we can't take it anymore,” said Pérez. “Now we have someone in the presidency who really supports the people.”