Guatemala City, October 11, 2023

Mr. Alejandro Giammettei Falla
The Office the President of the Republic

Mr. President,

With great indignation and disgust, through the media we have learned that a letter signed by yourself has been circulating in which you insist, just as you did on the national broadcast from October 9, 2023, that we are being “bussed in” by politicians. The goal of this is to deligitimatize our peaceful protests and demands, born of the widespread weariness among the Guatemalan people due to the great many abuses committed by our Public Ministry (the Guatemalan department of justice) against the Supreme Electoral Tribunal as well as to our democracy, the fundamentasl pillar of the rule of law. Your silence has made you complicit in these abuses.

As indigenous authorities, before arriving at the protest, we prioritized dialogue by means of administrative petitions and presenting legal actions that have not been resolved to date. This left us with no other path besides public protest so that we are heard.

On October 6th of this year, we newly presented an application for an urgent meeting with you. In complying with your Constituional mandate to safeguard national unity, we hoped to look for solutions to end the crisis caused by the actions of the Attorney General and chief fo the Public Ministry, the head of the special prosecutor’s office against impunity, and Judge “A” of the seventh pluripersonal court of criminal offenses, drug trafficking and crimes against the environment in the State of Guatemala.

Mr. President, we want it to be crystal clear that we Indigenous Peoples have no owner or master. We make our decisions via assemblies, our maximum authority, and from these assemblies comes our decision to protest until our demands our met. We demand that you take responsibility with dignity and do not look for someone to pass the blame to, when there is no one else. We also urgently demand that tomorrow at 11 am to have a meeting in the presidential palace with a mediator from the OAS mission who is in the country at the moment.

Sincerely,
The Assembly of Authorities of People in Resistence for the defense of democracy

[ENG] In a white background with black letters [ESP] En un fondo blando con letras negras