The European Union is ready to adopt a regulatory framework that will allow EU sanctions to be imposed on those who threaten the integrity of the electoral process in Guatemala, warned the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, on Friday 8 December.
Mr Borrell once again condemned the attempt by the Guatemalan judicial authorities to obstruct the transfer of power in the country following the victory in the August presidential elections of the leader of the Semilla movement, Bernardo Arévalo, on an anti-corruption agenda (see EUROPE 13295/25). The handover of power is scheduled for Sunday 14 January.
Earlier in the day, the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor’s Office ruled that the presidential election was “null and void”, citing a formal defect. In the aftermath, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal reaffirmed that the results of the presidential election were “official and unalterable”, and that those elected should take office in order to avoid a “breakdown in the constitutional order”.
Mr Borrell described the intervention of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Guatemala as “an attempt at a coup d’etat, spearheaded by politically motivated prosecutors”, which violates “the most basic principles of a democracy”.
On Monday 11 December, the ‘Foreign Affairs’ Council discussed the situation in Guatemala. Spanish minister José Manuel Albares asked the EU to be vigilant “to ensure that the will of the Guatemalan people, freely and democratically expressed at the ballot box, is respected”. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with Camille-Cerise Gessant)