Central America
Guatemalan court orders cancellation of Movimiento Semilla Party amid legal dispute
On Thursday, Judge Fredy Orellana ordered the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to cancel the political party Movimiento Semilla, which helped elect President Bernardo Arévalo de León in the 2023 elections. Members of the party have called the judge’s actions “illegal.”
Judge Orellana, head of the Seventh Criminal Court, instructed the TSE to carry out the cancellation of Movimiento Semilla, which is currently suspended due to a criminal case initiated by the Public Ministry (Prosecutor’s Office) in 2023 over alleged irregularities in its formation.
According to Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, who is handling the case against the president’s party, the judge’s request is based on testimony from former congresswoman and current government official Ligia Hernández, who agreed to testify after spending 90 days in prison.
The judicial order came two days after the ruling party succeeded in reforming the organized crime law in Congress to prevent the cancellation of Movimiento Semilla.
“A judge cannot suspend or cancel any political party,” said ruling party legislator Samuel Pérez to local journalists after the ruling was announced.
“With the reform we passed, we now have the tools necessary to recover the party and our rights as a legislative bloc. Now, the one who will have to answer for their illegal actions is Judge Orellana,” Pérez added.
Movimiento Semilla and several of its members, including Arévalo de León, have faced judicial persecution from the Prosecutor’s Office since their surprise victory in the 2023 presidential elections.
The leadership of the Prosecutor’s Office, headed by Consuelo Porras, and Judge Orellana have been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union for corruption, as their actions were deemed “undemocratic” in the context of Arévalo de León’s electoral victory last year.
Central America
President Bukele calls El Salvador’s total mining ban “absurd” due to gold deposits
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, stated this Wednesday that the total ban on mining in the country, in effect since 2017, is “absurd” given that the country has gold deposits.
“We are the ONLY country in the world with a total ban on metallic mining, something no other country has implemented. Absurd!” the president posted on social media platform X.
In March 2017, following pressure from environmentalists, the Congress approved the law banning metallic mining by a majority vote, considering it a destructive industry for both the environment and public health.
The ban covers activities such as exploration, extraction, exploitation, and processing, whether through open-pit or underground mining.
“This wealth (mineral resources), given by God, can be responsibly utilized to bring unprecedented economic and social development to our people,” Bukele wrote.
Central America
Guatemalan migrant José Yovanny Bocel Conoz repatriated for burial 13 years after being killed in Mexico
The family of Guatemalan migrant José Yovanny Bocel Conoz will finally be able to lay him to rest in Guatemala. His body was repatriated from Mexico on Thursday, 13 years after he was killed by members of organized crime in that country.
The body arrived on an Aeromexico cargo flight from Mexico City to Guatemala City, confirmed Rosmary Yacs, the family’s lawyer.
In 2012, when Mexico claimed to have identified the deceased, they sent the family a body. They honored, woke, and buried it, but later learned that the body they received was not that of the young man, who was 17 years old at the time of his death.
Bocel Conoz left his community in Camanchaj, in the municipality of Chichicastenango, Quiché, a poor, indigenous area in the west of Guatemala, headed for the United States in 2011. The young man wanted to find work and support his family, who lived in extreme poverty, but his journey was cut short.
A week after beginning his journey, the migrant made his last communication with his family, telling them he was in Tamaulipas, Mexico, and would soon cross the border. He was never heard from again.
At that time, organized crime targeted migrant groups, presumably to force them to join their ranks or extort their families by demanding ransoms in exchange for leaving them alive.
It is now known that Bocel Conoz was kidnapped, tortured, and killed by unknown assailants in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, and his body ended up in a mass grave.
The family’s lawyer told The Associated Press that the process has been complicated and difficult for them. “It’s a serious violation of their rights,” she said.
When Bocel Conoz’s body arrives in his community, the family will not hold a wake. The pain and the memory of what happened have been so great that they do not want to go through that again and have decided to bury him immediately, said Yacs.
“Finally, today we hope the family can close this chapter. It hasn’t been easy,” she added.
Central America
Guatemala reform allows Semilla Party to be reinstated amid legal battle
The Guatemalan Congress reformed a law on Tuesday that will enable the political party Semilla, led by President Bernardo Arévalo, to be reinstated. The party had been suspended by a judge for alleged irregularities in its registration amidst a judicial offensive against the president.
The reform to the Law Against Organized Crime, supported by 127 out of 160 lawmakers, prevents a judge from suspending or canceling political parties, as had been stipulated under the previous law, said ruling party legislator Samuel Pérez.
In August 2023, after Arévalo unexpectedly advanced to the second round of elections, Judge Fredy Orellana, sanctioned by Washington for being considered “corrupt” and “undemocratic,” used this law to suspend Semilla’s legal status, allegedly for presenting false signatures in its 2017 registration.
The law allowed the provisional suspension of “the registrations of legal entities” when they had been used to commit an “illegal act,” which Orellana attributed to the alleged false signatures. However, legal experts argued that this case should have been handled by the electoral court.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office, led by Consuelo Porras, also sanctioned by the U.S., is leading an offensive against Arévalo and his party, which jeopardized the president’s inauguration in January.
In compliance with the judicial order issued by Orellana, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal disqualified Semilla on November 3 of the previous year.
The new reforms now establish that this law does not apply to political organizations, which are subject to the Electoral Law and Political Parties Law, not the criminal code.
“We are telling the coup plotters ‘no more legal tricks to persecute the political opposition,’” said ruling party congressman José Carlos Sanabria, referring to Orellana and Porras.
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