Central America
Review of Guatemalan elections continues, despite complaints
July 5 |
The political group Vamos, of Guatemalan president Alejandro Giammattei, demanded this Tuesday a manual recount of votes in the review of the results of the general elections of June 25 ordered by the Constitutional Court in the face of demands from right-wing forces.
The National Executive Committee of said party expressed its concern “due to the finding of evident inconsistencies between the minutes presented and the data computed in the different polling stations.
According to a communiqué, this can be confirmed by the number of them showing “inconsistencies, alterations and other discrepancies”.
The electoral boards of the 22 departments of the Central American country met this Tuesday to comply with the resolution and review the voting records that could be challenged. This will continue throughout the week and the date on which the official results will be known is unknown.
However, the majority of Vamos prosecutors are requesting that the boxes containing the individual votes be opened and then counted manually.
This was criticized by prosecutors of other parties, who reiterated and argued that the opening of the boxes where the votes are located is illegal and is not specified in the resolution of the Constitutional Court nor in the Guatemalan law.
In this sense, through his communication channels, congressman Román Castellanos, from the social democrat group Semilla, warned about the risks of the current process.
He assured that the official party is “trying to open the ballot boxes to sabotage the electoral process and eliminate Semilla from the second electoral round”.
According to analysts and experts, the intention of Vamos could be to hinder or delay the electoral process, seeking to eventually suspend it.
The presidential elections of last June 25 were won by former first lady Sandra Torres Casanova, of the Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE), followed by academic Bernardo Arévalo de León, of the social democrat group Semilla, who entered the second round after sweeping the urban areas.
Central America
Arévalo calls corruption the “fuel of inequality” and reaffirms commitment to public transparency
Guatemala’s President, Bernardo Arévalo, stated on Friday that corruption is “the food of misery” in his country and reaffirmed his government’s commitment to continuing to strengthen public spending transparency.
During the first anniversary of the National Commission Against Corruption (CNC) established by his administration, the president expressed his satisfaction with the progress made.
“The road has been difficult,” he said, “but I am greatly satisfied with the fight against corruption, which is the fuel of inequality and the food of misery,” the president declared before members of the international community and government officials.
Arévalo also mentioned that the people who elected him in 2023 for a four-year term that began on January 14, 2024, “demand that we combat corruption.”
Central America
Zúñiga hopes CIDH experts can help investigate intellectual authors of Berta Cáceres’ murder
Bertha Zúñiga, daughter of the murdered Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres, expressed her hope on Friday to EFE that the expert group appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) will help investigate the authorship of the crime to “heal the wounds” and rebuild the social fabric in indigenous communities affected by the hydroelectric project her mother opposed.
The Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) represents an “effort to exhaust the investigations” into the responsibilities of all individuals involved in Cáceres’ murder, as well as in the “violence suffered” from the implementation of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, led by the company Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. (DESA), emphasized Zúñiga.
“We hope that, with the collaboration of the prosecutorial entities, (the experts) will effectively collaborate to move forward on what we have proposed and demanded for many years: formally requiring the intellectual authors of this crime and analyzing the related crimes,” including corruption and other violations, as well as proposing a comprehensive reparation plan for the victims of the hydroelectric project,” Zúñiga explained.
The CIDH appointed a group of four experts from Argentina, Chile, the United States, and Guatemala on Friday to provide technical assistance to Honduras in investigating the intellectual authorship of Cáceres’ murder, which occurred on March 2, 2016, while she was sleeping in her home in La Esperanza, despite the multiple death threats she had reported due to her opposition to the Agua Zarca project.
Central America
Nicaragua’s family confinement program: 7.18% of released prisoners reoffend
Nicaraguan authorities have released a total of 48,964 common prisoners under the family confinement regime over the past ten years, with 7.18% of them reoffending by committing at least one crime, according to the country’s vice president, Rosario Murillo.
Murillo, who is also the wife of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and appointed “co-president” in a reform to the Constitution, stated through official media that “7.18% are individuals who have reoffended in criminal activity from 2015 to today, February 14, 2025.”
This means that 3,515 out of the 48,964 common prisoners with final sentences who have been granted family confinement privileges have returned to criminal activity, according to the report.
The early release of common prisoners has faced criticism, particularly from feminist organizations, who argue that these benefits have contributed to an increase in femicides and general crime in Nicaragua.
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