A breach of Guatemala’s constitutional order could be imminent after the country’s attorney general attempted to invalidate the elections held in June, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has warned.

On Friday, the attorney general’s office declared it would attempt to annul the results of the first-round election, citing irregularities in voter registrations and data collected on the day of the June vote. The head of Guatemala’s top electoral court said it would not hold a repeat of the election. 

“The results are unalterable,” said court President Blanca Alfaro, adding that preventing a duly elected official like Arevalo from taking office would constitute “a break in the constitutional order” and must not be allowed.

President-elect Bernardo Arévalo of the progressive, anti-corruption Movimiento Semilla party amazed the nation by coming second in the first round of elections in June, then winning the August run-off. He and Vice President-elect Karina Herrera have faced a barrage of judicial attacks from the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, who is sympathetic to incumbent President Alejandro Giammattei.

In a resolution adopted on Monday afternoon, the commission — the human rights arm of the Organization of American States — stated that the attempts to overturn the election results and the political crisis in the country are having “profound effects for the validity of democracy and the population’s human rights as a consequence of a series of undue and arbitrary actions and interferences” by the public ministry.

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The IACHR’s resolution highlighted that the “instrumentalization of the justice system and criminal law, since the start of the electoral process, have made evident the abusive exercise of power for political and electoral ends.” 

It also stated that the democratic state’s system of checks and balances has been eroded “due to the lack of guarantees from the judicial power to fulfill its role of exercising control over constitutionality and conventionality.”

The commission went on to call on the Guatemalan authorities to respect the constitutional order and the separation of powers, stop making baseless and politically-motivated criminal accusations, and protect the lives of elected officials, rights defenders, journalists, and indigenous people. 

“This attempted coup is real”

At a press conference on Friday, Arévalo blasted the allegations as “absurd, ridiculous, and perverse,” and vowed to take office as scheduled on January 14. “This attempted coup is real, and it has brought us to a crucial moment,” said Arevalo.

In a statement issued late on Friday, the government of outgoing conservative President Alejandro Giammattei said the transition to Arevalo was inevitable, though it stopped short of any direct criticism of prosecutors.

“There is no action that could impede elected authorities from taking office,” according to the statement.

The Washington-based Organization of American States condemned what it called an “attempted coup d’etat” orchestrated by Guatemalan Attorney General Consuelo Porras and her aides.

-Herald/Reuters