Guatemala’s Constitutional Court’s Amparo overturns Semila’s suspension of legal status

(CNN Spanish) — Guatemala’s Constitutional Court announced this Thursday that it had granted temporary protection to the SEED movement, which the party requested after a seventh criminal case ordered the suspension of its legal status.

In a statement posted on social networks, the court explained that the security clearance opens “for the second election round (presidential) to take place on the indicated date and with the participation of the official candidates.”

Earlier, Semilla’s presidential candidate, Bernardo Arevalo, said the amparo had been filed to “protect democracy, the system and the constitution.”

On the other hand, Jose Ramiro Muñoz, director of the Registry of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, announced that he had filed a constitutional action for Amparo against the decision of the Seventh Court to suspend Semilla’s legal status. Take this kind of legal action.

“(It is) the only institution in the Constitution to suspend or abolish any political body in power. That is why we have raised this constitutional action for Ambar,” he said at a press conference on Thursday.

On Wednesday night, the head of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Against Impunity, Rafael Gurručić, reported on the suspension against Semilla for falsifying citizen signatures for the party’s recognition process; The party denied the allegations.

The decision sparked a backlash, including the suspension of the election campaign of National Trust (UNE) candidate Sandra Torres, who will compete against Arévalo in the August 20 runoff.

“The Public Ministry respects the decisions of the Constitutional Court. However, as the decision establishes, without prejudice to the powers of criminal prosecution, the responsibility of the Public Ministry is regulated in articles 251 of the Constitution of the Republic and of the Law on Elections and Political Parties”, the Prosecutor’s Office told CNN about this decision of the court. informed.

What did the public prosecutor say?

Guatemala’s Public Ministry confirmed this Friday that it would “continue investigations” after the Constitutional Court’s Amparo overturned the suspension of Semilla’s legal status.

“These investigations are currently limited to events that took place during the creation of the political party Movimiento Semilla, which, as a public legal entity, has clearly defined its constitutional requirements and applicable legal regulations,” they said in a statement.

The MP denied that its actions were “aimed at interfering with the date of the second round of elections or at blocking the participation of any candidate in the ballot scheduled for August 20 this year”.

Merlin Delcid and José Roberto Cisneros contributed to this report.