New Chargé d’Affaires John Barrett addressed Guatemalans on January 23, saying he’s pleased “to represent President Donald Trump and our America-first agenda.” Barrett also said “We support President Arévalo’s government” and “Our absolute priority is to stop illegal migration.” Barrett, apparently an accomplished diplomat, will quickly learn that these two positions are at odds with each other.
Also on January 23, Roger Stone posted “Narco-Controlled Election Fraudster Bernardo Arévalo Emerges as the [Nicolás] Maduro of Guatemala.” Arévalo represents the common agenda of the Soles Cartel and Joe Biden regime: flooding our country with illegal immigrants and drugs. For Trump’s America-first policy to prevail, he will have to override State Department (DOS) personnel who under his tenure protected Arévalo.
The Western Hemisphere section of the White House National Security Strategy calls for enlisting “established friends in the Hemisphere to control migration, stop drug flows, and strengthen stability and security on land and sea.” It seeks “regional champions that can help create tolerable stability in the region, even beyond those partners’ borders.” Guatemala has been a US ally until Arévalo and can become a regional champion if Trump adopts an effective policy.
Guatemala is the chokepoint for illegal migrants and drugs to the United States. Kamala Harris’s root-cause strategy was correctly framed. Unfortunately, radical collectivists’ words are diametrically opposite to their actions. Trump can create a real root-cause strategy while immediately minimizing the illegal flows of migrants and drugs.
Trump just removed Biden holdovers Ambassador Tobin Bradley and Deputy Chief of Mission Patrick Ventrell, whom Barrett replaced. Bradley and Ventrell executed the Biden agenda in betrayal of Trump by intervening in Guatemalan institutions and processes to help Arévalo establish dominance. The holdover pair also covered for Arévalo’s involvement in narcotrafficking, putting their socialist agenda ahead of US national security.
Security forces freed prison-guard hostages after riots in three prisons. Gangs killed police officers in reprisal, leading Arévalo to declare a state of siege. None of the conditions specified in the Constitution as necessary for the declaration exist.
Arévalo can no longer count on USAID and DOS to provide money and violence as they apparently did to get him illegally inaugurated. The state of siege provides Arévalo access to taxpayer money, without checks and balances, that he can use to bribe officials to centralize power in the presidency.
Bradley and Ventrell wanted to remain in Guatemala until at least June to help Arévalo succeed in placing cronies in key government posts. Guatemala will appoint new magistrates for the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) and the Constitutional Court (CC), which is the last word on judicial matters, as well as a new attorney general (AG)—all in the next four months.
With control of these institutions. Arévalo will be able to put political opponents in jail regardless of law and evidence. This power will make Congress subservient, and Arévalo will be able to rig the 2027 elections and turn Guatemala into a dictatorship. This is what the managers of the Biden regime, who installed Arévalo, attempted to do to the United States.
Arévalo criminally intervened during the last two weeks of the Bar Association election to choose delegates who nominate candidates for electoral magistrates for the 2026–2032 term. Government contracts of members who failed to text a copy of their vote for Arévalo’s slate would be canceled.
Bradley and Ventrell used these tactics to get the Bar Association directors elected. The association also plays an important role in nominating candidates for the CC and AG, for the 2026–2031 and 2026–2030 terms, respectively. Arévalo is completing the Biden regime agenda.
As Stone says, Arévalo plays “whatever role is needed to secure US support.” Arévalo knows that DOS installed and kept him in office illegally and that he would be legally removed if the United States withdrew its intimidation of CC magistrates.
Bradley and Ventrell could not have betrayed Trump without having DOS traitors passing information that suits them to their superiors and in turn to the White House. Even Arévalo supporters agree that ambassadors cannot act without DOS higher-ups’ involvement.
Barrett will be acting chief of mission until a new ambassador arrives. It is highly unlikely that Democrats will permit confirmation of a new ambassador before the key appointments referenced here have been made.
DOS has good people who will execute the president’s policy because it is their obligation. However, to avoid DOS traitors giving Barrett instructions that help Arévalo execute an anti-US agenda, Trump must have Barrett report to and take direction from the White House.
Lack of legal certainty is the root cause of migration and narco and human trafficking. Barrett will succeed if he makes clear publicly and privately that Trump insists on and will cooperate with Guatemala applying its laws.
