Guatemalan church leaders back growing protests

Guatemalans took to the street to demand the ouster of the Central American country's president and attorney general over the firing of an anti-impunity prosecutor whose work caused discomfort for President Alejandro Giammattei.

The protests have escalated since Juan Francisco Sandoval — known for pursuing politically sensitive corruption cases — was removed from the Special Prosecutor's Office Against Impunity July 23 by Guatemalan Attorney General María Consuelo Porras.

"This was the straw that broke the camel's back," said Nery Rodríguez, director of the Archdiocese of Guatemala City's human rights office. "The impression is that it was done to protect corrupt people, to protect politicians, who have done so many things to take advantage of the state as such."

Guatemala's bishops also backed the demonstrations — and the included calls for a national strike — while priests and religious have participated in protests.

"Removing the prosecutor is seen as paving the way to impunity," Bishop Domingo Buezo Leiva of Izabal said in a message to Catholic News Service.

The discontent ran deeper than the firing of the anti-impunity prosecutor, according to observers in Guatemala, who pointed to the poor handling of the pandemic, a lack of vaccines, a lack of transparency in the contracts signed for vaccines, and politicians failing to address pressing needs such as poverty.

"The issue of purchasing vaccines has been very obscure," Bishop Buezo said. "But it's only part of the corruption, which is present in each of the government's actions."

Scalabrinian Father Mauro Verzeletti, director of the Guatemala City migrant shelter, attended the protests and said the demonstrators wanted "an end to corruption, vaccines in their arms and something to eat."