Crisis Chronology | Guatemala

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GUATEMALA

01/14/2024

Arevalo inaugurated

Arevalo is finally sworn in as president after Congress negotiated the formation of a new Directive Council, the body that guides the legislature’s sessions and helps shape its agenda. The country’s entrenched ruling elite and a conservative-leaning Congress attempted to derail his inauguration. Congress eventually had to recognize the Seed Movement party after temporarily suspending it and insisting that its lawmakers join the legislature as independent members. Arevalo’s party also won the presidency of the Congress, giving it influence in shaping the body’s agenda.

10/06/2023

Protestors in support of Arévalo block roads across the country.

10/05/2023

Constitutional court rules that the suspension of Arévalo’s party (over suspicions of voter fraud) is legal, leaving him with no support in the legislature.

10/02/2023

Protests in the streets after reports that the Attorney General Consuelo Porras; the prosecutor leading an anti-corruption unit, Rafael Curruchiche; and judge Fredy Orellana act to seize vote boxes in the investigation into voter fraud.

08/21/2023

Arévalo leading Torres 58% to 36% with almost all votes counted. The judicial investigation into the signatures that the Seed Movement gathered to register as a party continues. If a sufficient number are found to be invalid, Arévalo would be stripped of his party. It’s unclear how that would affect his election.

07/13/2023

Constitutional Court issues an injunction against the suspension of the Seed Movement.

07/12/2023

In response to suits by the Seed Movement’s opponents, Attorney General María Consuelo Porras suspends the party and raids its offices. Torres suspends her campaign in protest against the action.

06/28/2023

Arévalo advances to the runoff in voting for president. His Seed Movement’s strength was a surprise and a rejection of the government’s increasingly anti-democratic policies, including attacks on the press and on anti-corruption advocates. Arévalo is the son of former president Juan José Arévalo.

06/25/2023

Presidential election. Former first lady Sandra Torres leads, with 15.8% of the vote. Bernardo Arévalo, leader of the Movimiento Semilla (Seed Movement) and son of a former president was second with 11.8%. Both are seen as center-left but Arévalo’s success was a surprise. Twenty other candidates ran, but fewer than half of eligible voters cast a ballot – 40% did not vote and nearly a quarter of the ballots were blank or spoiled. Giammattei is barred from running.

05/18/2022

Attorney General Maria Consuelo Porras begins second term. Her reappointment has caused alarm because she is seen as aiding the limitation of democratic practices, protecting corruption and her allies, and bending the rule of law. The US bars her and her husband from entering the US, and suspended aid to her office in 2021 after she fired Juan Francisco Sandoval of the anticorruption office.

08/03/2021

Rafael Curruchiche is appointed head of the Special Prosecutor's Office Against Impunity (FECI). Some protest that Curruchiche has protected corrupt officials in the past.

05/19/2021

Court rules that former President Otto Pérez Molina cannot be prosecuted on corruption charges. Attorney General announces the arrest of Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa, the former head of the tax agency who had helped to build the case against Molina.

11/21/2020

Protestors set fire to congressional building and call for Giammattei to resign. They are protesting congressional increases for meals and reductions in COVID-19 patients and human rights agencies. Two recent hurricanes have hit the country hard.

03/13/2020

Guatemala confirms its first case of COVID-19.

01/14/2020

Giammattei takes office. He has not announced a firm position about the agreement that allows the US send asylum seekers from third countries to Guatemala that Morales signed. US officials have also claimed that Mexican asylum seekers can be sent to Guatemala, but Morales says he did not agree to that. A new group of asylum seekers is attempting to assemble in Guatemala for the trek north.

08/11/2019

Giammattei elected president

Giammattei wins second round of election. He won 58% of the vote amid low turnout. He promised to fight crime and must deal with arrangement with US that Morales agreed to requiring asylum seekers to file papers in their home country. Torres was widely seen as corrupt. Morales did so under threats of tariffs on Guatemala exports to the US. Giammatei was prosecuted but acquitted of extrajudicial killings by a UN commission.

06/20/2019

After days of disputes and accusations, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal orders a review of the voting records and restarts the count. Torres reportedly held her lead over Giammattei.

06/16/2019

In presidential election voting early returns, Sandra Torres of the center-left National Unity of Hope (UNE) coalition takes a lead over conservative leader of Vamos party and former head of the prison system Alejandro Giammattei, 23% to 16%. A runoff election is likely.

06/06/2019

Government sends national guard to border with Guatemala to restrict immigration. Guatemala has also reportedly inquired about a US military presence on its northern border.

06/06/2019

Government sends national guard to border with Guatemala to restrict immigration. Guatemala has also reportedly inquired about a US military presence on its northern border.

05/28/2019

Government sends Dept. of Homeland Security agents to Guatemala to increase security and reduce migration. Agents will provide "law enforcement training and training to improve criminal investigations," which are intended to reduce factors that drive people to migrate.

05/28/2019

US sends Dept. of Homeland Security agents to Guatemala to increase security and reduce migration. Agents will provide "law enforcement training and training to improve criminal investigations," which are intended to reduce factors that drive people to migrate.

05/08/2019

Referendum in Belize on taking its dispute with Guatemala to the International Court of Justice is approved with 55% of the vote.

05/06/2019

Attorney General María Consuelo Porras and the International Commission against Impunity file a corruption case against presidential candidate Estuardo Galdámez and several others. Porras also requests that their immunity be removed.

04/24/2019

A court in the US orders the arrest of Guatemala presidential candidate Roberto Arzú of the Alianza Podemos-Partido de Avanzada Nacional.

04/17/2019

Presidential candidate Mario Estrada is arrested in the US, which announces that Estrada had asked the Sinaloa cartel to carry out the assassination of several political rivals in return for control of airports and shipping ports in Guatemala. Elections are scheduled for 6/18. Zury Rios, daughter of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, has registered to be the candidate of the right-wing Valor Party, but by law, anyone who took power by force, and their relatives, are barred from running. The third main candidate, Sandra Torres of the National Unity of Hope (UNE) party, is the former wife of former president Alvaro Colom. They divorced to circumvent a law against spouses running for president, but her candidacy was barred in 2011. She ran and last to Morales in 2015, however. She may face charges of illegal campaign financing. She was accused of it after the campaign, but the courts upheld her immunity. Howevev, prosecutors have now filed a motion to strip her of immunity.

04/15/2019

Belize bill calling for a referendum on the territorial dispute with Guatemala to be adjudicated by the International Court of Justice passes the Belize Senate. Having already been passed by the House, it will now go to a referendum

04/10/2019

Belize court sets date for hearing on the injunction to the territorial dispute referendum as 4/29. Pres Morales of Guatemala calls for Belize to fulfill its commitment to submit the case to the International Court of Justice.

04/03/2019

Belize court issues an injunction to stop the 4/10 referendum on submitting the territorial dispute with Guatemala to the International Court of Justice.

04/01/2019

Election commission annuls Aldana’s candidacy.

03/29/2019

US orders aid cutoff to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala for not doing enough to stop migration.

03/26/2019

On the anniversary of a UN report detailing human rights abuses by the government in the civil war, there are protests against a law that would grant amnesty to those who carried out the abuses.

03/17/2019

Semilla Party nominates Aldana to be their presidential candidate. Registered candidates by law have immunity from prosecution and arrest that can only be stripped through special proceedings. But despite Aldana's initial registration, officials stated that immunity would only come after legal challenges were resolved and that the warrant remained in effect.

03/16/2019

Court issues an arrest warrant for Thelma Aldana, former attorney general, anti-corruption advocate, and potential presidential candidate, alledging embezzlement and providing false information. She is in El Salvador. Her investigation forced Otto Molina to resign.

01/09/2019

Constitutional Court blocks government order that the UN commission on corruption leave the country. Subsequently, Supreme Court agrees to consider petition to expel the three Constitutional Court members who have supported the UN commission.

01/07/2019

Government denounces UN commission investigating crime and corruption and demands that it leave the country.

12/18/2018

US pledges nearly $6 billion to aid economic aid to Mexico about $5 billion to Honduras, Guatemela, and El Salvador.

12/02/2018

Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador agree to reduce the number of people fleeing their countries by creating a fund to boost job creation and welfare.

10/22/2018

As a very large group of migrants, mostly from Honduras, continue to progress toward the US southern border, Pres Trump says he will beging cutting off aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

04/15/2018

Referendum on resolving the territorial dispute with Belize at the International Court of Justice passes with 53% of the vote. Belize has yet to vote on the proposal. The disputed territory dates back to the 17th century when some Britons landed in the area for its wood resources. Guatemala is now claiming half of Belize’s national territory.

02/21/2018

South Korea signs free-trade agreement with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Panama.

01/15/2018

Chief prosecutor says Pres Morales is not an ally in the fight against corruption.