Guatemalan Prosecutor's Office Raids Seed Party's Headquarters

On Friday, the Guatemalan Prosecutor's Office raided the headquarters of the Seed Movement (Semilla) as part of the proceedings for a case of alleged corruption against this party.

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According to local media, however, the Prosecutor's Office seeks to cancel the legal status of the progressive party that supported presidential candidate Bernardo Arevalo, who unexpectedly came second in the June 25 elections.

This social democratic politician should compete with the former first lady Sandra Torres Casanova in the run-off scheduled for August 20. However, this might not happen if the Prosecutor's Office manages to ban the Seed Movement.

Ordered by criminal judge Fredy Orellana, the raid seeks to seize documents linked to alleged anomalies that occurred during the formation of the Seed Movement in 2018.

The tweet reads, "They want to make a photocopy of a Supreme Electoral Tribunal's file. Announcing through their accounts on social networks, the Prosecutor's Office will arrive with an order to search and seize documents, 20 agents with ski masks, machine guns, and vehicles with covered license plates."

The Prosecutor's Office would even be ready to request the lifting of immunity against Seed Movement lawmakers and militants in order to investigate them in this case.

On Thursday, authorities carried out another raid at the headquarters of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to obtain files related to the investigation of this political group.

According to Guatemalan experts, the Prosecutor's Office has violated the Constitution and intends to prevent Arevalo from becoming president.

“Once again we are seeing an attack on the decision of the Guatemalans. It is a baseless and cowardly attack aimed at intimidating the party by fabricating a totally spurious case,” Seed Movement's defense attorney Juan Guerrero said.