Guatemala’s democracy is facing a severe crisis. The authorities have undermined human rights safeguards and institutional checks on the abuse of power in an effort to prevent accountability for widespread high-level corruption. Authorities pursued spurious criminal charges against independent journalists, prosecutors, and judges who have investigated and exposed corruption, human rights violations, and the abuse of power. A large part of Guatemala’s justice system has been co-opted by a network of corrupt political, economic, and military elites seeking to advance their own interests and carry out corrupt practices with impunity.
A prosecutor in Guatemala asked a court to lift the immunity of one of the candidates in June 2023 presidential elections, because the candidate had asked about a judge’s motive in prosecuting journalists. But government prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche asked the country’s Supreme Court to lift the immunity of candidate Edmond Mulet, because Mulet had asked for an investigation into a judge. Candidates in Guatemala normally have immunity from being prosecuted while they are running, to ensure free elections.
Mulet, who usually places third or fourth in polls of the presidential candidates, is the only one of them who asked for an investigation of Judge Jimi Bremer.
Mulet has had a long career as a diplomat, holding several prominent UN posts. He was a centrist member of Congress for 12 years and ran for president in 2019, earning 11% of the first-round vote. He is known as a moderate, competent centrist who understands how government works. His work with the UN—as Head of the Stabilization Mission in Haiti in 2010-2011, the Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations in 2011-2015, and a leader of the UN’s investigation into allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria—reinforced this reputation. His long career in the international arena has also allowed him to distance himself from the recent corruption scandals that have shaken the Guatemalan political class.
However, Mulet does not have the support of a major party, but he is still widely considered a product of the traditional party system that is viewed with suspicion by much of the population. He also worked as a young lawyer in the 1980s with a controversial international adoption program. He denies any wrongdoing.
Mulet has significant name recognition and a reputation for pragmatism, especially among educated, urban voters. He is backed by a small new party Movimiento Cabal that he helped found.
He has proposed to fight corruption by cutting state bureaucracy and forming a new anti-corruption mechanism with international backing. He has also proposed raising police salaries and allowing the armed forces to adopt some policing duties.
It was the latest chapter in which Guatemala prosecutors have gone after journalists, politicians, former prosecutors and judges for having investigated corruption inside the government and judicial system.
Opponents say that, instead of going after corruption, prosecutors in Guatemala are now going after those who denounce it.
Jose Rafael Curruchiche Cacul (Rafael Curruchiche), the current chief of the Public Ministry’s Office of the Special Prosecutor Against Impunity (FECI), obstructed investigations into acts of corruption by disrupting high-profile corruption cases against government officials and raising apparently spurious claims against FECI prosecutors, private attorneys, and former International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) prosecutors.
The FECI is linked to the case of José Rubén Zamora and wants to investigate the presidential candidate for obstruction of justice. According to Curruchiche, Mulet may have conspired by denouncing Judge Jimmi Bremer for authorizing the investigation of journalists and the media. On March 1, Judge Jimmi Bremer authorized the Public Ministry to investigate journalists and the media in a hearing for a second case against journalist José Rubén Zamora.
Previously, Mulet called for an end to the persecution against journalists that began in the judiciary headed by Bremer.
In February, Bremer ordered the investigation of nine journalists. These individuals include journalists from El Periódico and an independent media organization founder, José Rubén Zamora, who has been held in pre-trial detention since his arrest in July 2022.
According to Mulet, criticizing an investigation against journalists is not a crime, but is a right of any citizen. Requesting that a possibly irregular action by a judge be investigated is not a crime, neither in Guatemala nor in any other country in the world, it is a right.
Bremer said journalists from El Periodico newspaper should be placed under investigation to determine whether they were maliciously pursuing prosecutors, judges and other members of Guatemala’s justice system.
Top prosecutor Cinthia Monterroso had argued that El Periodico published stories about complaints, disciplinary processes and questioned decisions by justice officials, including herself. She said who ordered such stories and the sources of their financing must be investigated. Some 30 judges, magistrates and prosecutors involved in the investigation or processing of those corruption cases have been forced to flee the country after facing legal action under the current administration.
Mulet’s persecution, however, is related exclusively to the presidential elections and the threats he poses to Guatemala’s corrupt judiciary.
