Guatemala Paralyzed for Second Straight Day
roadblocks and protests against the Attorney General
Citizens block streets, demanding the resignation of Attorney General Consuelo Porras
HAVANA TIMES – On Tuesday, October 10, all major activities in Guatemala were paralyzed for the second straight day, due to roadblocks set up across more than 100 highways. The demonstrators blocking the roads are demanding the immediate resignation of Consuelo Porras, Guatemala’s Attorney General and head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
A large part of the Central American country remains at a standstill, despite the fact that President Alejandro Giammatei warned Manday night that the protest leaders would be arrested and the highways cleared.
At noon on Tuesday, a contingent from Guatemala’s National Civil Police spoke with those demonstrating at one of the principal avenues of Guatemala City, hoping to convince them to clear the roadway.
Instead, the police quickly began retreating when the demonstrators tripled their numbers and many of them, on motorcycles, rebuked the police and urged them to leave.
This incident took place in what’s known as the Periferico or beltway, only a few kilometers from the center of Guatemala City, the capital, where some 1,000 demonstrators continue to control passage, despite speculation that the Police could take action at any moment. That roadway is one of 125 major throughways that are currently blocked to traffic in Guatemala, according to official reports. Only ambulances and medical emergencies are being allowed to pass.
Over a week of resistance
Tuesday October 10, marked the ninth consecutive day of the sustained protests and blockades that began on October 2, when demonstrators first came out to demand the resignation of Consuelo Porras.
In an address to the nation Monday night, President Giammatei called the blockades “illegal” and asserted that those who block highways will be held legally responsible. Despite this, a large number of people continue mobilizing at the roadblocks. Their actions have maintained an unprecedented general strike in Guatemala for a second consecutive day.
Due to the protests, all in-person classes at every level have been suspended and some of the large multi-national companies such as McDonalds or Shell have announced the temporary closure of the majority of their installations.
The protests were convoked and begun in the first days of October by indigenous organizations. They initially centered on 48 cantos of the department of Totonicapan, in the western part of Guatemala just north of the city of Quetzaltenango. From there, different groups and trade associations have joined in, including universities, doctors and businesses.
The demonstrators demand the resignation of Attorney General Consuelo Porras due to her attempts to overturn the results of the general elections. Guatemala held presidential elections in June, with a run-off in August. In a result that surprised nearly all observers, anti-corruption candidate Bernardo Arevalo – a writer and sociologist considered an outsider – won in a landslide.
President-elect Arevalo is scheduled for inauguration on January 14th. He’s warned that there’s a “coup” in progress against him, in order to avoid his assuming power. At the end of August his Semilla party was outlawed by Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Council, and in September, ballots were seized by prosecutors in a controversial raid.