[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 115 (Wednesday, July 15, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4102-S4103]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               GUATEMALA

  Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, in December 2022, I traveled to Guatemala 
as part of a congressional delegation led by Senator Tim Kaine. Four 
months earlier, to the shock and dismay of powerful rightwing forces in 
Guatemala's Congress and business community, Bernardo Arevalo, an anti-
corruption activist, had been overwhelmingly elected President in an 
election widely recognized as free and fair.
  Guatemala is one of Central America's most corrupt countries, so it 
was not surprising that his election triggered a frantic attempt by his 
opponents, led in part by then-Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who 
had been sanctioned by the United States, to invalidate the election on 
fabricated grounds of fraud and prevent Arevalo's inauguration. The 
purpose of our trip was to demonstrate our strong support for the 
choice of the Guatemalan people, in particular Guatemala's historically 
marginalized indigenous population, and for the integrity of the 
democratic process.

[[Page S4103]]

  To the country's credit, Arevalo was inaugurated on January 15, 2024, 
and for the first time in decades, Guatemala has a President who is not 
beholden to the corrupt forces that have exploited political power for 
their own enrichment and used Guatemala's armed forces and police to 
harass, threaten, arbitrarily arrest, and even murder their opponents.
  But having failed to prevent Arevalo from taking office, those forces 
have carried out a relentless campaign, aided by counterparts and 
lobbyists in Washington with close ties to the Trump administration, to 
sabotage his efforts to reform the justice system and end the culture 
of corruption, violence, and impunity that has plagued Guatemala for 
generations. Career U.S. foreign service officers who stood up for the 
rule of law and democracy in Guatemala, were summarily replaced by U.S. 
Embassy appointees who reportedly urged members of Guatemala's Congress 
to support a rightwing candidate tainted by corruption for a seat on 
the constitutional court, or risk losing their U.S. visas.
  Unlike President Trump and officials in his administration, I do not 
believe it is our role--using threats, inducements, or other means--to 
try to influence the outcome of election of foreign candidates for 
office, whether Presidents, legislators, or judges. We oppose such 
interference in our own sovereignty, and it is hypocritical and unwise 
to engage in such conduct ourselves.
  I mention this because President Arevalo has another year and a half 
in his 4-year term. If political and economic forces in Guatemala, 
backed by nefarious associates of the Trump administration, continue to 
try to deny the will of the Guatemalan people and thwart Arevalo's 
anti-corruption mandate by using their influence to undermine the 
institutions of democracy for the benefit of themselves and their 
cronies, they will pay a price when the balance of power shifts in 
Washington. People here know the history of U.S. political and economic 
intervention in Guatemala dating back to 1954, and they have long 
memories when it comes to corruption and the manipulation of judicial 
and law enforcement institutions in that country.
  The appropriate role of the United States in Guatemala, as in the 
rest of Latin America, is to support the people there by improving 
their lives through free and fair elections, equitable economic 
opportunities, and access to justice that conforms to international 
protections of due process. Too often, U.S. policy in Guatemala has 
strayed from those goals, motivated instead by greed and corrupt 
interests in our own country, and promoting the militarization of 
internal security. That is a recipe for a return to authoritarianism, 
ethnic and social division, and armed conflict. Guatemalans who choose 
that path should be forewarned that it will ultimately be their own, 
and the country's, undoing.
  No President, even in the best of circumstances, can transform a 
country like Guatemala in 4 years, but President Arevalo deserves our 
strong support. At a time when the trend in Latin America is to elect 
leaders who equate law and order with subverting judicial independence, 
militarizing the police, and running roughshod over due process of law, 
President Arevalo has restored integrity to the office and defended the 
institutions of democracy. In the long run, that has the best chance of 
producing the transparency, accountability, stability, and prosperity 
the Guatemalan people need.

                          ____________________