A report by the Guatemalan Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) has revealed evidence of fraud and interference in the 2023 presidential elections, allegedly orchestrated by the US State Department (DOS) and the Biden administration.
The report, released on December 8, challenges the legitimacy of the election results that favored Bernardo Arévalo, a leftist candidate supported by the US.
According to the report, the electoral authority (TSE) hired partisan computer operators, counted votes that lacked legal support, and reported results prematurely, in coordination with US officials. The report also accuses the DOS and the Biden administration of waging an information warfare campaign against the Guatemalan people, using corrupt media and agents to spread lies and manipulate public opinion.
As reported by BPR on December 12, 2023, the report claims that the US-backed Arévalo, who won the runoff election on August 20 with 12 percent of the vote, was a dark-horse candidate who had never received more than 3 percent support in any poll1. His party, Semilla, also failed to win any of the 340 municipal elections, an unprecedented anomaly.
The report further alleges that the DOS and the Biden administration pressured the Guatemalan government and private sector to remove Prosecutor General Consuelo Porras, who was investigating more than 1,000 complaints of electoral crimes, as required by law. The Constitutional Court, however, ordered the PGO to continue its investigation and report its findings to all relevant bodies.
The report also exposes the hypocrisy and criminality of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC), which echoed the DOS’s false charge of PGO election interference in a July 14 press release. The HFAC chairman, Michael McCaul, also urged the Biden administration to sanction supposedly corrupt actors in Guatemala.
The report reveals that the DOS undermined the PGO’s law enforcement capability by sanctioning a prosecutor without basis, five days after the HFAC press release. The PGO responded with a letter to the HFAC on September 12, detailing the DOS’s crimes, including arbitrarily sanctioning the prosecutor.
The report also traces the history of the US meddling in Guatemala’s justice system, which began in 2016, when Biden and DOS officials took over the appointment of high-court magistrates.
The report states that in 2021, despite the Biden administration’s pressure, the Guatemalan officials appointed magistrates not controlled by the DOS, which allowed Porras to prosecute prosecutors and judges who had executed the DOS’s criminal agenda. This prompted the DOS to sanction Porras as well.
The report also criticizes the HFAC for ignoring many reasons to investigate the DOS’s criminality, especially the contradiction between its accusations against the PGO and the PGO’s response.
The report contrasts the DOS’s condemnation of Porras with the Justice Department’s praise of the Guatemalan law enforcement for unprecedented cooperation regarding human-smuggler extraditions, which only the PGO can request.
The report concludes by calling for the House leadership to investigate and expose the Biden administration and the DOS’s weaponization of the US government abroad, supporting adversaries and attacking allies.
The report warns that the DOS puppet Arévalo is part of the socialist Puebla Group that backs Iran, Hamas, and the Chinese Communist Party, and poses a threat to the security and democracy of Guatemala and the region.
