President of Guatemala Bernardo Arévalo

By María Josefina Arce

The pulse between the government of President Bernardo Arévalo and the questioned Attorney General Consuelo Porras has once again gained intensity in Guatemala, who at all times has refused to resign from her position to which she accepted in 2018 and was ratified four years later by the previous one. President Alejandro Giammattei, accused of the deepening of corruption in the country under his government.

In the last few hours, Arévalo presented in Congress a proposal to reform the Public Ministry to achieve the dismissal of Porras for understanding that she does not fulfill her duties and on the contrary promotes impunity.

Last February he had denounced the official before the Supreme Court for failure to fulfill her duties, but the court has not yet ruled on the matter.

This new step by the current executive to try to remove the controversial Attorney General, a political ally of Gianmattei, was made known to the entire country in a message on radio and television.

Current law prohibits the president from dismissing the Prosecutor. This is only possible if the person occupying that position is convicted in a legal process.

But shortly before the head of state's announcement, the Public Ministry had opportunely filed an appeal for protection with the Constitutional Court for, incredibly, Arévalo's alleged arbitrary and illegal actions.

The authorities have acted within the law and sought through legal means the removal of the Attorney General, who in an attempt to present herself as a victim, said she feared actions against her physical integrity.

Porras has created an entire fictional plot. And the truth is that she has ignored numerous investigations into corruption linked to political figures, while she has imprisoned those who denounce acts of this nature.

She was also one of the architects of the political persecution against Arévalo and his Semilla Movement, and tried at all costs to prevent his inauguration on January 14, which caused massive protests in the country.

Let us not forget that the maneuvers of the Public Ministry against Semilla followed one after another, since Arévalo surprisingly managed to advance to the August runoff, after being the second presidential candidate with the most votes in June of last year in the first round of the general elections.

An attempt was made by all means to suspend the legal status of the party, whose offices were raided, a few weeks before the second round of elections, in which Arévalo was elected as the new president, with more than 60% of the votes.

Arévalo has had to overcome many obstacles, who even saw his inauguration ceremony delayed by members of Congress. The reality is that his efforts to fight corruption are not liked by the economic and political elite of a country, classified as one of the most corrupt in the region.