Guatemala City’s Central Plaza was a sea of cautious optimism on Jan. 14. But just up the street, a march organized by Indigenous leaders set out to walk towards the plaza as part of the commemoration of the inauguration of Bernardo Arévalo as the country’s next president.
The march marked the culmination of the Indigenous-led movement to defend Guatemala’s fragile democracy against attempts launched by corrupt politicians to block the ascension of Arévalo to the presidency of the Central American country. He was an academic and diplomat who became a congressional representative and then an anti-corruption presidential candidate in 2023.
Arévalo was inaugurated as the next president of Guatemala just after midnight on Jan. 15, after nearly 10 hours of delays by conservatives in Guatemala’s Congress. His inauguration followed 106 days of protests led by Mayan, Xinka and Garifuna authorities in defense of Guatemala’s democracy.
“It’s an expression of triumph, of reaching our goal,” said Alida Vicenete, who participated in the protest and is a lawyer and member of the Mayan Poqomam Ancestral Authorities of Palin, Escuintla. “I think that many of us even celebrated it more than the officials themselves. Our dedication was total — day and night, rain and hunger — and after reaching the goal, it is a feeling of success.”
She added, “Honestly, if there had not been an uprising of the people, Arévalo would not have taken office.”
Others involved in the mobilization to protect democracy expressed the same.
“We feel very satisfied with the work we did,” said Jorge González, a member of the Mayan Achi Ancestral Authorities of Rabinal, Baja Verapáz. “Because really the work had the greatest fruit, that Arévalo was able to take office.”
In his first act as president, Arévalo visited an encampment, set up outside of the attorney general’s office in early October, to address the Indigenous leaders. He recognized their critical role in the defense of democracy, and thanked them for their efforts.
“There were 106 days of resistance, of dignity, of gallantry,” Arévalo told the Indigenous leaders around 2 a.m. on Jan. 15. “And today they are ending with a democratic government that you have managed to rescue.”
In his statement he also called on the Indigenous leaders and other Guatemalan citizens to continue to be vigilant.
Previous Coverage
How Guatemalans are mobilizing to defend their fragile democracyLeaders from Indigenous communities across the country mobilized to defend the fragile democratic order as attempts to undermine the results of the 2023 elections increased, in what Arévalo referred to as an attempted electoral coup. In October the protests exploded, with tens of thousands of people from across the social stratum — including students, market workers and poor neighborhoods — joining the Indigenous leaders in the defense of democracy. They demanded the resignation of Attorney General María Consuelo Porras for her part in the attacks on President-elect Arévalo and voiced their direct support for the democratic process to a national audience.
“This is something that exploded,” González said. “It is an example of the great work of organizing at the national level that all these towns went out to protest the same day, and then from there the other towns joined in. Then it reached a point where everyone went out to the capital city where they never go out to demonstrate.”
Attempts to derail Arévalo
The lead up to the June 25 general elections was marked by concern, as popular candidates were arbitrarily barred from running for office by the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal, including presidential candidate Thelma Cabrera, who is Mam Mayan, of the Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples party.
The prohibition of candidates who were considered to be threats to the status quo led many to believe that the elections were being cleared for far-right candidates, such as Zury Rios, the daughter of former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, or center-right ex-diplomat Edmund Mulet.
But to the surprise of everyone the results of the general elections would launch Arévalo into a run-off against the rightward shifting Sandra Torres, an increasingly conservative businesswoman and former first lady who ran for the presidency in the previous two elections. While Arévalo was polling in eighth place before the June 25 vote, widespread exhaustion with corruption and the status quo catapulted the progressive candidate into the run-off.
However, the challenges began just as the surprise in the elections set in.
Between July 12 and Jan. 14 the public prosecutor’s office launched at least five different attempts to intervene in the electoral process. These attempts include judges issuing orders to suspend Arévalo’s Movimiento Semilla party in July; raids of Movimiento Semilla’s offices and the offices of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, seizing documents and official vote tallies; requesting that the Supreme Court strip Arévalo, Vice President Karin Herrara, and other party members of their immunity over allegations of stoking student movement protests; and the far-right casting doubts of electoral fraud.
Indigenous communities mobilize to defend democracy
Indigenous Ancestral Authorities were at the forefront of the defense of democracy from the beginning of the attacks against the historic victory, issuing legal challenges and supporting the democratic order. Indigenous leaders contributed to marches through July, but there were increasingly arbitrary attacks in August and September by prosecutors seeking to derail the transition of power, leading to threats of massive nationwide protests.
“A legal strategy [was pursued] to stop the coup,” Vicente said. “However, none of that worked for us. There was no reason why these people would abide by the popular and sovereign will of the people.”
In response to this, on Sept. 5, a group of Ancestral Authorities and spiritual guides that represent smaller communities, including Vicente, began a series of actions known as Xik’a’y in the Mayan K’iche languages, in order to publicly punish those corrupt officials who had attacked the democratic process. Vicente and the other authorities and spiritual guides traveled between the buildings of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, the presidential palace and congress carrying a vinyl sign with the images of the officials involved in the coup, hitting them with tree branches.
They continued to carry out these ceremonies every 13 days.
Other calls for mobilizations to defend democracy moved through social media and networks of Ancestral Authorities across the country, from the leaderships of the larger communal government of the 48 Cantones of Totonicapán and Indigenous Municipality of Sololá. These calls culminated in the arrival of Indigenous authorities in Guatemala City and the blocking of the Inter-American highway passing through Totonicapán on Oct. 2.
Propagated by social media, roadblocks quickly spread across the country, and lasted for nearly two weeks. Some roadblocks faced violence by criminal groups, and one person was killed by a group associated with a local mayor. The Minister of the Interior resigned because he refused to use force against protesters. Within a week there were over 150 roadblocks across the country and in neighborhoods across Guatemala City before subsiding to focus on the mobilizations outside the public prosecutor’s office.
The encampment outside the public prosecutor’s office brought in support from across the city. For 106 days it grew as more people arrived to support the efforts of the Ancestral Authorities, who held Mayan ceremonies just outside the gate of the building.
Delegations from Indigenous communities arrived daily, so did donations of food and water. Each day there were people walking around donating fruit or fresh cooked meals. Medics set up medical centers to provide care and musicians held concerts to entertain those who were demanding the resignation of the attorney general and demanding respect for the results of the 2023 elections.
González says that these protests benefited from social media such as TikTok, Facebook and X, as well as reports from independent media that circulated on these social media.
“The digital platforms that exist today had a lot of influence,” he said. “They showed people what was being done and [allowed] for each person to join the struggle.”
These efforts were further supported by actions by the international community, with the U.S. and the European Union approving visa restrictions and sanctions against those involved in undermining the democratic order.
On Jan. 17, just days after the transition, the U.S. Department of State announced that they had stripped outgoing Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei of his visa over acts of corruption. Giammattei had refused to be in attendance to hand over power to Arévalo on Jan. 15.
What lies ahead
The defense of Guatemala’s democracy does not end with Arévalo taking office.
The attacks on democracy continue, with Attorney Gen. Porras and the other members of the corrupt status quo remaining in positions of power. But those who defended democracy over the last six months will be poised to defend what space has been won.
Rather, this marks the beginning of a larger movement. For Indigenous leaders, there is hope that Arévalo will be more inclusive and combat the systemic racism against Indigenous peoples and their Indigenous forms of local governance.
“Right now the first phase ends, but the second phase begins,” said González ahead of the march on Jan. 14, explaining that they must accompany the new government while at the same time analyzing the new administration’s policies. He emphasized “We hope it will lead to combating discrimination and racism.”
It will be a challenge to combat those structures, as Guatemala has seen these systems embedded in the state.
“We are going to have to work to ensure that the state of Guatemala responds to the priorities and needs of the people,” Vicente said. “But that is not easy. This state has been designed with a racist colonial view and modifying all this is something that involves rooting out and transforming the structure at the service of the mafias.”
But there is a sense of hope that Arévalo can begin the change, as he has sought to uphold and respect Indigenous communities. He first did so by recognizing their key leadership in the defense of democracy, and then he became the first Guatemalan president to participate in a public Mayan ceremony following his inauguration.
In the end, the defense of Guatemala’s fragile democracy is the result of “people’s desire for change,” Vicente said.
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DonateAs the new government begins, Indigenous leaders like González and Vicente are still going to remain active in the defense of democracy and continuing to demand the resignation of Attorney General Porras. For González, recuperating the state institutions is the first step in fighting the systemic corruption that has left so many Indigenous communities in a state of abandonment.
“First we need to recover the institution of justice because from there it covers the entire fight against corruption,” González said. “If there is no independent justice system there is no fight against corruption and impunity, nor are there improvements regarding the rights of Indigenous peoples.”
He added, “We are going to achieve this together.”
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