Guatemala at Crossroads with Appointments to Constitutional Court

Enable Security, Prosperity: Resist US Pressure

Guatemala constitutional court appointments

The new Guatemalan magistrates must be loyal to the Constitution and not influenced on judicial matters by anyone. (CC.gob.gt)

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Guatemala has had a criminal, political Constitutional Court (CC)—the last word on judicial matters—since 2016, when Joe Biden was Obama’s point man. The magistrates he imposed have enjoyed open support from State Department bureaucrats in betrayal of former President Donald Trump and from congressional Democrats. 

Aware that Guatemala has been losing its liberty, the nation’s institutions have resisted pressure from now President Joe Biden to appoint more of his favored magistrates for the 2021–2026  CC term. Accedence would portend another five years of criminal rulings.

The clearest example of resistance is the Bar Association. Lawyers are engaged with the judiciary as part of their profession. Juan Francisco Sandoval, the criminal prosecutor with Biden regime support, filed bogus criminal charges against Judge Mynor Moto to persuade lawyers not to vote for him as a two-month replacement for a magistrate who had died.

Moto won anyway, showing the embassy and Sandoval have no credibility with the Bar Association. Sandoval filed the same charges again, and Biden regime co-conspirator Judge Erika Aifán illegally ordered Moto’s arrest to keep him off the CC.

For their 2021–2026 appointment, the Bar Association elected Néstor Vázquez, who beat Sandoval-Aifán-Biden candidate Francisco Rivas by more than 25 percent. The directors tried to tip the election for Rivas, but they could not fool enough members.

The three branches of government—executive, legislative, and judicial (Supreme Court), all of whose powers have been usurped by the CC—appointed lawyers not of the Sandoval-Aifán-Biden group. Guatemalans want the Constitution to prevail, which it has not for five years.

The Anti-Constitutional Court

The CC has issued many illegal, political rulings that violate the Constitution. A few examples:

  • The CC magistrates in the majority have a group of co-conspirators that file injunction petitions. The Injunction Law requires the petitioner be the aggrieved party. The CC accepts petitions it should automatically reject and then issues illegal rulings.
  • Shutting the Oxec hydroelectric plants violated the Constitution because it takes precedence over Convention 169 and all treaties. According to the American Chamber of Commerce, this CC ruling put 445,000 jobs and more than $780 billions of dollars in annual tax revenues at risk. It harmed the legitimate residents of the area.
  • The CC’s closure of the San Rafael mine caused a $6 billion decrease in value for its previous owners. This severely harmed the area with lost jobs and revenue.
  • The CC violates separation of powers. It ordered Congress to pass a law conforming to their ruling in the Oxec case; not pass a national reconciliation law benefiting military veterans; and violate the Constitution by not processing criminal complaints against CC magistrates.
  • The CC violated separation of powers by reversing executive-branch expulsions of diplomats, a power designated exclusively to the executive by the Constitution. The CC has ordered the foreign minister to send a letter with CC-dictated content to foreigners.
  • The CC conspires with judges, such as Yassmin Barrios and Erika Aifán to persecute their targets, such as the Bitkov family, attorney Moises Galindo, military veterans, and many others. Lower-court judges could not so blatantly violate the law if the CC were to uphold the law.
  • The CC covers for prosecutors and judges who protect conflict groups throughout the country that force inhabitants to commit crimes against businesses and authorities.
  • CC magistrates have sat in judgement of themselves, an illegal act anywhere.

The CC is doing the work of the socialist movement that wants people migrating to please its partners: US Democrats and State Department bureaucrats. As collectivists, they want people dependent on government so the latter will have arbitrary power over the country.

Guatemalans want opportunity and security. The CC and its collectivist partners promote poverty and violence following Fidel Castro’s and Lula da Silva’s strategy created in their Sao Paulo Forum.

US Collectivists at the Helm

A group of Guatemalans of the collectivist cabal wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in July to complain about resistance to their agenda. They call their opponents corrupt, just as Democrats call their opponents racists. Collectivists are merely projecting themselves onto others.

Twelve Guatemalan civic organizations that represent more than 1.4 million Guatemalans sent a letter to Republican congressional leaders in response to explain the law and procedures. They asked for an impartial investigation. The crimes of the majority of CC magistrates are in the public record.

The fifth institutional appointment to the CC is San Carlos University. A haven for Marxism, it chose Gloria Porras, the leader of CC corruption appointed in 2016 under duress by former US Ambassador Todd Robinson.

The process was flawed. The vote was by voice instead of in secret. They voted repeatedly until those in charge could intimidate people to vote for Porras. She has a public record of corruption and has no academic experience, which is required by statute.

Representatives of the Biden regime are due in Guatemala today. They have already given awards to Sandoval and Aifán, a message of support for bureaucrats whom the CC protects from criminal complaints. The embassy has put much effort into intimidating Guatemalan officials to appoint magistrates who will ignore the Constitution and do the embassy’s criminal bidding.

Guatemalans must support their representatives resisting US extortion, coercion, and threats. If the Biden regime objects to this characterization, it should make public its talks with Guatemalan officials and explain why it involves itself in judicial matters. Guatemalan authorities should record every word of their conversations and make them public.

Guatemalans must continue to insist the new magistrates be loyal to the Constitution and not influenced on judicial matters by anyone, including the Biden regime and its collectivist partners. Resisting US pressure to appoint a new Biden CC would give Guatemala a chance to repair the damage of the outgoing Biden CC and create security and opportunity and have free elections in 2023.

Steven Hecht

Editor at Large Steve Hecht is a businessman, writer, and film producer, born and raised in New York. He has lived and worked in Guatemala since 1972. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Master of Business Administration in Banking and Finance, both from Columbia University. He has worked on development projects in Guatemala to help the country leave its underdeveloped state and reach its great potential. Realizing the misconceptions prevalent about Guatemala and Latin America in the outside world, he has written for the Washington Times, Daily Caller, Fox News, Epoch Times, BizPac Review, Washington Examiner, Frontpage Mag, New English Review, PanAm Post, and PJ Media. He has appeared as a guest on national American media networks and programs, including the One America News, Newsmax, and The Lars Larson Show. Steve’s reporting has included meeting with coyotes, the human smugglers who have ferried millions of illegal immigrants into the United States via Guatemala’s 595-mile border with Mexico.

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