Guatemala: Call to Impose Targeted Sanctions to Address Interferences with the Electoral Process

 Brussels, 7 December 2023

RE: Imposing targeted sanctions in Guatemala

Dear Mr. De Schietere,

Dear colleagues,   

We are writing, on behalf of Human Rights Watch, to call on the European Union to urgently impose targeted sanctions, whether under its global human rights sanctions regime or an ad-hoc sanctions regime to address interferences with the electoral process in Guatemala. We also urge you to take other actions, detailed below, in response to serious human rights violations and democratic backsliding in the country.

In recent years, Guatemalan authorities have undermined human rights safeguards and institutional checks on the abuse of power to prevent accountability for widespread high-level corruption.[1] Most recently, they have attacked the right to vote during the 2023 elections that anti-corruption candidate Bernardo Arévalo won.[2]

The Attorney General’s Office has pursued spurious criminal charges against independent journalists, prosecutors, and judges, who have investigated and exposed corruption, human rights violations, and the abuse of power.[3] As the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers have noted, many of the investigations against prosecutors and judges violate judicial independence and due process and appear to be a retaliation for their work fighting corruption.[4]

Freedom of expression has also been curtailed.[5] Several journalists have faced seemingly politically motivated criminal investigations, including José Rubén Zamora, the editor of El Periódico de Guatemala, who has been in prison since July 2022.[6]

The recent elections were marked by attacks on the right to vote and efforts to make the playing field uneven. Electoral authorities banned opposition presidential candidates Thelma Cabrera, Roberto Arzú, and Carlos Pineda through politically motivated decisions and the Attorney General’s Office launched an arbitrary criminal investigation against candidate Edmond Mulet.[7]

During the first round of presidential elections held on June 25, Sandra Torres of the Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE), came in first, trailed by Bernardo Arévalo, an anti-corruption candidate and leader of the progressive movement Semilla.[8] Since then, the Attorney General’s Office has led efforts to undermine the right to vote and harassed Semilla through legal maneuvers.[9]

Arévalo won the second-round elections on August 20. Although the EU and the Organization of American States (OAS) electoral observation missions found no evidence of serious irregularities,[10] the Attorney General’s Office, some judges and Congress continue to pursue efforts that seem designed to intimidate Semilla and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and to ultimately overturn the electoral results. These efforts include:

• Since July, the Attorney General’s Office has conducted a politically motivated investigation against Semilla citing irregularities in the party’s registration in 2018.[11] On July 12, a judge ordered the suspension of Semilla’s legal registration.[12] The next day, the Constitutional Court reversed the judicial order, ruling that the judge’s decision could not put the August 20 election on hold.[13] The Supreme Electoral Tribunal eventually suspended the legal registration of the party on November 2.[14] This means, among other things, that Semilla would not be able to form a political group and be represented in Congressional Commissions. The EU Electoral Observation Mission described the case as part of a pattern of “judicial persecution,” “harassment,” and “intimidation” against Semilla.[15]
• In September, the Attorney General’s Office asked the Supreme Court and Congress to lift the immunity from prosecution for the magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal (TSE) so that they could be investigated for alleged “irregularities” in the acquisition of electoral results transmission software (Sistema de Transmisión de Resultados Electorales, TREP).[16] On November 7, the Supreme Court referred the case to Congress. On November 30, the final day of regular sessions, a majority of 108 members voted in favor of lifting the four magistrates’ immunity.[17] Three of them left the country.[18] The president of the Congressional Investigative Committee, a body responsible for the initial analysis of the request, said that Congress was using the proceedings against TSE magistrates to “impede the inauguration of President-elect Arévalo.”[19]
• In November, the Attorney General’s Office announced an investigation into a largely peaceful 2022 demonstration in San Carlos University, the largest in the country. Prosecutors requested 27 arrest warrants against activists, students, academics, human rights defenders, and a member of Semilla.[20] The office also asked the Supreme Court to lift the immunity of Arévalo and Vice President-elect Karin Herrera so they could be investigated for allegedly promoting the student protest through social media publications.[21]

We welcome the statements of concern about human rights violations in Guatemala issued by the European External Action Service[22], the EU electoral observation mission[23], the European Parliament[24], and several EU member states.

We urge the EU and its member states to impose targeted sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, against senior government officials who bear responsibility for serious human rights violations, including but not limited to:

• María Consuelo Porras Argueta de Porras. Since she was first appointed Attorney General, in 2018, the Attorney General’s Office has undermined investigations into corruption and human rights abuses, and brought arbitrary criminal proceedings against journalists, judges, prosecutors and former members of the United Nations-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala, CICIG).[25] Her office has carried out spurious criminal investigations that appear designed to intimidate Semilla and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and to overturn the electoral results, as described above. In addition, the U.S. government has sanctioned Porras for her “involvement in significant corruption” and for repeatedly obstructing and undermining anticorruption investigations.[26]
• Jose Rafael Curruchiche Cacul. Since he was appointed Special Prosecutor Against Impunity, in 2021, the office he leads, the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Impunity (Fiscalía Especial contra la Impunidad, FECI), has undermined investigations into corruption and conducted spurious cases against independent prosecutors, judges and former CICIG members.[27] FECI also led the case against journalist José Rubén Zamora, who remains in prison under dubious charges, and requested an investigation for “obstruction of justice” against nine journalists and columnists who covered Zamora’s case[28] and conducted the spurious criminal investigations against members of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and Semilla described above.[29] In 2022, the US government included Curruchiche in the list of Corrupt and Undemocratic Actors for “disrupting high-profile corruption cases against government officials and raising apparently spurious claims against FECI prosecutors, private attorneys, and former International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) prosecutors.”[30]
• Fredy Raul Orellana Letona, a judge, has repeatedly greenlighted spurious criminal prosecutions led by the Attorney General’s Office. He ordered, in July, the suspension of Semilla’s legal registration[31] and greenlighted a criminal investigation against the Supreme Electoral Tribunal Citizens’ Register director, José  Ramiro Muñoz for refusing to comply with the order.[32] Orellana also sent José Rubén Zamora to trial[33] and issued two arrest warrants against Juan Francisco Sandoval, the widely respected former head of FECI, who has been granted asylum in the United States.[34] In 2023, the United States included Orellana in the list of Corrupt and Undemocratic Actors for “authorizing unsubstantiated, politically motivated criminal charges,” undermining democratic institutions.[35]
• Cinthia Edelmira Monterroso Gómez, a FECI prosecutor, has led criminal investigations that undermine freedom of expression. She participated in the seemingly arbitrary prosecution of José Rubén Zamora and requested an investigation for “obstruction of justice” against nine journalists and columnists who covered Zamora’s case.[36] She also participated in the abusive criminal prosecution regarding Semilla’s legal registration[37] and in raids of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal’s headquarters.[38] In 2023, the United States government included Monterroso in the list of Corrupt and Undemocratic actors 2023 for having “undermined democratic processes or institutions by bringing unsubstantiated, politically motivated criminal charges against journalists for exercising their freedom of expression as protected by Guatemalan law.”[39]

In addition to imposing targeted sanctions against these individuals, we urge the EU and its member states to:

• Work jointly with governments in Latin America and the United States to publicly and privately call on President Alejandro Giammattei to condemn the Attorney General’s Office’s decisions that undermine the political rights of Guatemalans. As the EU electoral observation mission has noted, “[n]either the [g]overnment nor its supporting political parties [have] condemned” these abusive maneuvers.[40]
• Urge key actors from Guatemala’s business sector, including leaders in the Coordinating Committee of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, and Finance (Comité Coordinador de Cámaras Comerciales, Industriales y Financieras, CACIF), to speak up in support of democracy and the rule of law.
• Remind Guatemalan authorities and business sector people that “respect for democratic principles and fundamental rights” is an “essential clause” of the EU-Central America association agreement, which Belgium has yet to ratify.[41]
• Continue to monitor closely the situation in Guatemala until a smooth and peaceful transfer of power is guaranteed, including by following decisions by the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, which have yet to rule, respectively, on important cases concerning the immunity of President-elect Arévalo and on lawsuits to protect the right to vote.
• Consider imposing sanctions on other people who may bear responsibility for serious human rights violations in Guatemala, including by examining the responsibility of magistrates, members of Congress, and businesspeople.

Given the rapid deterioration of the situation on the ground and the imminence of the date of the expected inauguration of the President-elect, we urge the European Union to use targeted measures and other tools expeditiously and with resolve.

We thank you for your attention and remain available should you have any additional questions.