The approval of the 2021 budget in Guatemala, at 5:30 in the morning of Wednesday, November 18, caused a massive protest in the country, with more than 10,000 protesters. The protest, initially peaceful, ended with fires in the Parliament building, in addition to 37 detainees and 22 people injured1. These mobilizations take place just five years after the massive demonstrations that removed then-President Otto Pérez Molina2 from power, and are a sample of what happens when austericidal recipes are followed that affect the most vulnerable citizens.
The main reason for this protest is a controversial budget that, despite being much higher in quantity than the previous year with 99,700 million quetzals3, left essential items for the population such as hospitals and education practically frozen, while other infrastructures were fed with concessions in the private sector. The approval was carried out in an opaque parliamentary session and at dawn, at 5:30, urgently. All this in a country that, without being the poorest in its region, is at the forefront in chronic child malnutrition4.
This protest comes at a particularly low time for the popularity of the president, Alejandro Giammattei, with a population that denounces his corruption and mismanagement of Covid-19. According to the Mexican research company Mitofsky, his approval rating fell from 56% after the elections to 30% in July5. So much so that even his vice president Guillermo Castillo asked for the resignation of both after the events in Parliament. Giammattei reacted to these protests by asking for the support of the international community in search of support for “the preservation of democracy in Guatemala”6.
It is not the first case of corruption complaints in Guatemala, where they cost former president Pérez Molina and his vice president Roxana Baldetti7 their jobs, both in prison. According to Transparency International, Guatemala is one of the most corrupt countries in Latin America, only below Venezuela, Haiti and Nicaragua.
The great mobilization and the climate of social discontent have nevertheless achieved their goal . The president of the Guatemalan Congress, Allan Rodríguez, announced on Monday 23 that he would reverse the budgets8. That gives them margin only until November 30 to approve a new budget, or else last year’s one would remain in effect. It is one more example of how a population that struggles together is capable of winning the game to austerity.
1 https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20201122/cientos-manifestantes-toman-congreso-guatemala-prenden-fuego/2058014.shtml 2 https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20201122/cientos-manifestantes-toman-congreso-guatemala-prenden-fuego/2058014.shtml 3 https://www.minfin.gob.gt/images/archivos/proypre21/DOCUENTOS/Proyecto%20Decreto.pdf 4 https://www.minfin.gob.gt/images/archivos/proypre21/DOCUENTOS/Proyecto%20Decreto.pdf 5 http://www.consulta.mx/index.php/encuestas-e-investigaciones/el-mundo/item/1317-asi-inicia-en-guatemala-alejandro-giammattei 6 http://www.consulta.mx/index.php/encuestas-e-investigaciones/el-mundo/item/1317-asi-inicia-en-guatemala-alejandro-giammattei 7 https://www.efe.com/efe/america/politica/baldetti-a-prision-15-anos-por-querer-descontaminar-un-lago-con-agua-magica-en-guatemala/20000035-3775251 8 https://es.euronews.com/2020/11/24/guatemala-retiran-el-polemico-presupuesto-tras-la-quema-del-parlamento
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