Three days before the election between Sandra Torres and Bernardo Arévalo, prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche anticipated that next week he could request new arrest warrants and the removal of immunity from members of the Semilla party. While the party's presidential candidate repeats the same FECI speech on the platforms.
Last Thursday, the head of the Special Prosecutor's Office against Impunity (FECI), Rafael Curruchiche, was present at the Torre de Tribunales and declared to the media related to the investigation unit he directs. According to the prosecutor, they have made progress in the investigation against the Movimiento Semilla and announced that it will file preliminary trials and new arrest warrants will be requested after the second presidential round.
?After August 20, we will have to make some decisions regarding the exercise of public criminal prosecution. We do not rule out the issuance of some arrest warrants and other proceedings that will be made known,? Curruchiche assured.
According to the prosecutor, the FECI undertook a ?comprehensive investigation? of the case and would go against the data entry workers who were hired by the TSE for the transmission of vote count data, these were recruited for the 2023 electoral process. Curruchiche questioned that several of them are affiliated with Semilla.
Despite the fact that there is no evidence or expert opinion to confirm Curruchiche's assertion, Sandra Torres appropriated the speech and in a press conference before the closing of the campaign held in the La Terminal market, assured that there are five thousand false signatures and that she was worried about facing to a political party constituted illegally, alluding to the group that promotes the pairing of Bernardo Arévalo and Karin Herrera.
Torres, candidate for the presidency for the National Unity of Hope (UNE) party, also questioned the company that provides the Transmission System for Temporary Results of the Electoral Process (TREP) and the hiring of four of the 5,298 thousand data entry workers.
"We want certainty, impartiality and certainty and we are not seeing it," Torres said two days before facing Bernardo Arévalo for the country's presidency, for the period 2024-2028.
Complaints by data entry
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) hired 5,298 data entry workers to cover the electoral process, but according to Torres, there are four cases that concern her and make her doubt the impartiality of the process.
Torres alleged that there are three data entry workers temporarily hired by the TSE who are affiliated with the Movimiento Semilla party.
In addition, the UNE presidential candidate said that there is one more data entry officer who is not affiliated with Semilla but who works for a mill owned by Dionisio Gutiérrez, who would be a financier of his adversaries.
As a result of these four hires, Torres believes that the results can be manipulated and asked the TSE to fire the data entry workers and hire four new ones or to let him hire more than two thousand data entry workers who are affiliated with his party. ?We want equal conditions,? assured the presidential candidate.
Likewise, the candidate mixed two proverbs to request that the TSE withdraw the typists, indicating that ?either all fair or all understood?.
The magistrate of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Gabriel Aguilera, indicated that they have collaborated with the Public Ministry with everything required. On the subject of data entry clerks, he pointed out that ?coordinators were sent to carry out exams and training those who were going to participate as data entry clerks. Criminal and police records were requested and it was checked that they were not affiliated. An analysis was carried out and that with more than 4 thousand typists, only about 22 people appeared affiliated and none belonged to the two parties that went to the second round. But it is necessary to clarify that the affiliation or not to a political party is not a prohibition to participate as typists. The function is to enter the preliminary results, the data that are transferred in the minutes 4 in the presence of the president and the board receiving votes. They do not have any user to modify documents, they only do a filling?.
Regarding this pronouncement, on their social networks, members of the Semilla party have made publications alluding to the actions of Torres and Curruchiche. The deputy Román Castellanos, assured that the FECI is the last letter to seek to misinform and stop the party.
"After a poll that plunges the candidate into corruption and the massive closure of Semilla's campaign, the regime takes out its already burned letter: Curruchiche and his false case to misinform," he wrote.
After a poll that plunges the candidate into corruption and the massive closure of Semilla's campaign, the regime takes out its already burned letter: Curruchiche and his false case to misinform.
— Roman Castellanos ??? (@rocasgt) August 17, 2023
For her part, the elected deputy and substitute prosecutor for the party, Andrea Reyes, assured that it is impossible for the MP to know that there are "a thousand false signatures." ?Curru began by saying that there were 5 thousand. And with that I request two arrest warrants. In other words, if the people had been captured, today they would be unjustly imprisoned based on evidence that little by little the prosecution has not been able to explain and they would have been imprisoned for no reason,? he wrote.
2. INACIF's capacity:
The inacif has a unit that is in charge of making this kind of expert reports, they are very useful in cases of property scams, extortion, theft of checkbooks, etc.It has a social function and guarantees access to justice for their victims.
—Andrea Maria? (@drewzecena) August 18, 2023
Rosal: ?Actions seek to generate fear?
In the opinion of the political analyst Renzo Rosal, the fact of anticipating criminal actions against the presidential candidate of the Semilla party, Bernardo Arévalo and against other members of that political group, three days before the elections, only seeks to generate fear and increase political tension. who lives in the country.
Rosal believes that FECI's message to seed is to let them know "that their days are numbered." ?The messages that (Rafael Curruchiche) raised yesterday are to tighten the strings and generate that electoral preamble to tell Semilla ?his days are numbered?. You Mr. Arévalo, you Samuel Pérez, your days are numbered. If you win things will continue and if you lose, even worse?, he commented.
Regarding the scenarios that could be envisioned before and after the second presidential round, the political analyst believes that the persecution against the party will continue. And even if Semilla wins, they would not only seek to cancel the party but also to pursue a criminal prosecution process against the heads of the party.
?Arévalo will win the second round and announces the names of his cabinet. Each one of these names will be subject to persecution, that is, joining the cabinet implies being in the front row of the following objectives of the MP, added Rosal.
Polls anticipate defeat
After the publication of the results of two surveys on the intention to vote, Sandra Torres came out to declare her doubts regarding the integrity of the electoral process.
The survey carried out by CID Gallup published that the population has a voting intention of 61 percent for Bernardo Arévalo of the Seed Movement and 39 percent for Sandra Torres of the UNE.
This survey was published on August 16 and was carried out at the request of the Fundación Libertad y Desarrollo, by Dionisio Gutiérrez.
The results of the survey carried out by ProDatos at the request of Prensa Libre, give Arévalo an advantage of almost four percentage points, positioning him with a voting intention of 64.9 percent, while Torres has 35.1 percent.
Here are other data from his closing campaign:
#SecondLap ???Torres against the TSE and Semilla
During her campaign closing rally, the UNE presidential candidate pointed out alleged anomalies against the digitizers of the @TSEGuatemala and continued his rhetoric against @msemillagt three days before the elections? pic.twitter.com/pMkeQNlVPD
— Community Press Km169 (@PrensaComunitar) August 18, 2023
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