To: Detroit/Seattle
Workers' Voice mailing list
August 22, 2021
by Pete Brown, Detroit Workers' Voice
Thousands of Guatemalans took to the streets at the end of July protesting the firing of a prosecutor specializing in cases of government corruption. The special prosecutor, Juan Francisco Sandoval, was fired on July 23 by the country’s Attorney General, Consuelo Porras. The firing of Sandoval signaled to everyone that government leaders’ declarations of determination to root out corruption are false. Fed up with being fed lies, some 10,000 people blocked major highways a few days later and called for a national work stoppage. Representatives of students, farm workers, professionals, and the indigenous said they would participate. Demonstrations were reportedly taking place at scores of places around the country. (1)
Sandoval’s firing occurred after his investigations began targeting
members of the presidential cabinet. Sandoval wanted their immunity
from prosecution lifted. Sandoval’s work had previously helped bring
down a former president, and Porras refused to allow him to go forward
this time. After Porras fired him, Sandoval knew his safety was in
jeopardy, and he immediately fled the country, accompanied by some
journalists and the Swedish ambassador. (2)
This makes him the fourth top prosecutor to flee in the last few years.
Their jobs have become precarious since the government expelled the
UN’s special commission to investigate corruption and crimes carried
out by the government and military.
Biden administration officials expressed dismay at Sandoval’s firing
and suspended cooperation with the Guatemalan government’s
anti-corruption efforts, seeing they were nothing but a fraud. This
probably marks the end of Biden’s cheery optimism about the situation
in Central America. VP Kamala Harris visited the area a few months ago
and tried to cheer up residents by telling them, “Embrace hope!” She
met with Guatemala’s president and other cabinet leaders and urged them
to continue anti-corruption efforts. She and Biden hoped to
convince ordinary Guatemalans to stay at home and avoid emigrating to
the U.S. Her message to would-be emigrants was, “Do not come!” (3)
While Harris was embracing the president of Guatemala, tens of
thousands of poor, unemployed Guatemalans were being rounded up by ICE
along the U.S. border. The vast majority of them are slated for
immediate deportation. Harris lectures them to “Embrace hope!”, but
thousands of poor peasants have lost hope as their economic security
has been destroyed by massive importation of mass-produced agricultural
goods from the U.S. The American government forces open markets in
Central America and then tells the impoverished peasants, “Embrace
hope!” and “Do not come!” Thousands more have been impoverished by
climate change caused largely by CO2 emissions from the U.S. The
resulting drought, floods and storms are destroying agriculture
throughout Central America.
It’s no wonder that many Guatemalans try to escape their impossible situation by emigrating to the U.S. But there they find themselves hounded by ICE and forced into low-paid, dirty jobs. The U.S. government refuses to accept economic refugees or climate refugees as legitimate asylum-seekers. To qualify as a refugee, emigrants have to prove they’re marked for assassination by a military death squad or criminal gang. This is hard to prove without being dead. The Biden administration continues rounding up and deporting Central Americans just like the previous administrations of Trump and Obama. And they continue the same pro-market policies, putting the profits of American corporations ahead of Guatemalans’ problems. (4)
Back in Guatemala, protest leaders and anti-corruption activists are
routinely marked for death by military death squads. This makes the
recent round of demonstrations all the more remarkable. The people show
they’re determined to take a stand against corrupt and fascist
authorities. They deserve our wholehearted support. Biden and Harris
can’t do anything, they say, about a corrupt regime in Central America;
but the masses of working people certainly can.
(1) Sonia Perez D., Associated Press, July 29, 2021 carried in the Los Angeles Times of July 30, 2021, p. A4: “Guatemalans block roads to protest firing of prosecutor.”
(2) https://apnews.com/article/guatemala-65df7392334755e69796386d26256295
(3) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/07/opinion/kamala-harris-guatemala.html
(4) https://nacla.org/old-US-foreign-policies-new-results-Guatemala
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