Last week, I wrote a piece on Bernardo Arevalo, the newly elected president of Guatemala, and his Anti-Corruption credentials. Since then, there have been several worrying developments about how effectively Guatemala can fight corruption and the future of its democracy. On Monday, Guatemalan prosecutors arrested Claudia Gonzalez, a representative of Guatemala’s anti-corruption commission, better known as CICIG. According to a report by the AP, Gonzalez was arrested on charges of abuse of authority by a public servant, even though, at the time, she was not officially a government member. According to another report by Yahoo, at the time of her arrest, Gonzalez had been acting as a representative for the numerous other Anti-Corruption officials arrested by the Guatemalan government.
On top of this, despite the official certification of Arevalo as the new president, there remain doubts about his ability to take office. According to a report by Al-Jazeera, the outgoing president of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, has assured Arevalo and his campaign that there will be a smooth transition of power. Despite this, Guatemala’s electoral registry has suspended Arevalo’s party Movimento Semilla (the seed Movement). There are still fears that Guatemala’s political establishment, which is notoriously corrupt, will try and find some way to impede Arevalo’s ascension to the presidency. One has to hope that democracy will prevail and that Arevalo can take power.
Crispin Corruption Report 