Guatemala’s president-elect Bernardo Arevalo on Friday denounced an “ongoing coup” by the country’s institutions to block him from power, after his political party was suspended.
“There is a group of corrupt politicians and officials who refuse to accept this result and have launched a plan to break the constitutional order and violate democracy,” he told a press conference.
“These actions constitute a coup d’etat that is promoted by the institutions that should guarantee justice in our country.”
Arevalo, a 64-year-old sociologist, swept from obscurity to an August 20 election with his vow to crack down on the corruption dogging the Central American nation.
He has been the subject of threats, and on Monday the country’s electoral tribunal suspended his Semilla (Seed) party, prompting Washington to condemn “anti-democratic behavior.”
“We are seeing an ongoing coup, in which the justice apparatus is used to violate justice itself, mocking the popular will freely expressed at the polls,” said Arevalo.
