Guatemala's President-elect Bernardo Arevalo stands on the Square of Human Rights outside the Supreme Court, in Guatemala City, Guatemala November 16, 2023.
REUTERS/Cristina Chiquin/file photo Acquire Licensing RightsNov 18 (Reuters) - International rebuke swelled on Saturday over what observers say are efforts to use a politicized justice system to keep Guatemalan President-elect Bernardo Arevalo out of office.
A prosecutor at Guatemala's attorney general's office on Thursday moved to strip Arevalo of his immunity from prosecution, accusing him and his running mate of complicity in the takeover of a university in the capital last year.
In a statement on Saturday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and its Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, condemned the attorney general's office's "incessant improper actions and interference."
Earlier Saturday, senior U.S. Department of State official Brian Nichols condemned the attorney general's office's "malign request" to strip Arevalo and his Vice President-elect Karin Herrera of immunity in a post on social media.
Persons:
Bernardo Arevalo, Cristina Chiquin, Arevalo, general's office's, Brian Nichols, Karin Herrera, Herrera, Guatemalans, General Consuela Porras, Brendan O'Boyle, Chizu
Organizations:
Human, REUTERS, Guatemalan, Inter, American, Human Rights, U.S . Department of State, Democratic Initiative of Spain, Americas, Grupo IDEA, U.S, Movement, Thomson
Locations:
Guatemala City, Guatemala, Latin America, Spain