New president of Guatemala formally inaugurated after failed weekend coup d’état – JURIST

On Monday, Guatemala’s new president, Bernardo Arévalo, was inaugurated and sworn into office after an initial ceremony on Sunday was interrupted by what international observers called an “orchestrated coup d’état.”

In a message posted on X (formerly Twitter) in Spanish just hours before Monday’s rescheduled ceremony, Arévalo said the nation will now move forward. “With you and for you. Guatemala advances” Spanish translated to English. Late into the night on Sunday, foreign ministers and US diplomats (including representatives from USAID) gathered to celebrate the new president’s transition to power following a landslide August 2023 electoral victory marred by attempted state interference. The foreign ministers and diplomats were also called into an emergency meeting regarding Sunday’s attempted coup.

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, earlier read a statement Sunday on behalf of various world nations that called for the Congress of Guatemala “to fulfill its mandate to hand over power as required by the Constitution” Spanish translated to English.

The insurrection proved to be short-lived, despite videos shared on social media earlier on Sunday, showing lawmakers and the president locked into a room by members of the organized coup.

Confidence grew among elected congressional delegates on the eve of Monday’s early hours, and the news was then quickly announced that the coup plotters, a group known as Pacto de Corruptos, had failed in their objective. The Guatemalan congress would sit as elected to inaugurate Arévalo.

Just hours later, footage emerged on social media of one of the coup plotters, Manuel de Jesús Rivera, being aggressively heckled by members of the public, gathered to await the inauguration of their newly-elected President.

Arévalo, a known anti-corruption advocate, was locked in a contentious battle with prosecutors leading up to and after his first and second-round election victories in late 2023. The Guatemalan attorney general’s office attempted to have Aréval‘s first-round victory invalidated, although that move was quickly rejected by the country’s electoral court, according to reporting from Reuters.

In September 2023, the OAS formally warned the attorney general’s office against interfering in the ongoing election and said, “[t]he actions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office are an intolerable violation of Guatemala’s Constitution.”

By December, US officials announced a series of sanctions against three Guatemalan prosecutors and a judge, who were alleged to have “orchestrat[ed] politically motivated investigations aimed at casting doubt on certified election outcomes, ultimately disrupting the presidential transition [in Guatemala.]”

USAID Administrator Samantha Power congratulated Arévalo and the institutions of Guatemalan democracy. “Last night’s inauguration was a testament to the determination and conviction of the Guatemalan people to make their voices heard and tirelessly defend their democracy,” said Power.