Congress on Thursday selected the 13 new judges of Guatemala’s Supreme Court after a process criticized by observers alleging opaqueness and political interference.
The choice was considered critical for the fight against graft in one of Central America’s poorest countries, whose President Bernardo Arevalo has denounced the existence of a “corrupt pact” among politicians, prosecutors, judges and business elites he says have wielded power from the shadows.
In Guatemala, members of the Supreme and Appeals courts are appointed every five years.
The outgoing court had been criticized for backing Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who led an unsuccessful push to have Arevalo’s August 2023 election victory invalidated.
Arevalo, who won the presidency on an anti-corruption platform, had urged Congress to select the “best” candidates in order to “continue in the spirit of change the country needs” and ensure an independent justice system.
However, three of the previous court’s members were reelected, including two under suspicion of wrongdoing.
Prosecutor Dimas Jimenez, a Porras protege, was not chosen.
Guatemala is ranked the 30th-most corrupt country in the world by the NGO Transparency International.
Arevalo’s anti-corruption crusade had put him in the crosshairs of prosecutors accused of graft themselves.
The most visible face of the anti-Arevalo camp has been Porras, herself under US and EU sanctions for corruption.
Rafael Curruchiche, another Porras confidant also under US and EU sanctions, narrowly missed out on making the shortlist.
“The mafias won,” Ana Maria Mendez Dardon of the human rights WOLA said after the results were made known, adding the outcome was a “bitter pill” for Arevalo and his battle.
“Control of the courts will be key to guarantee impunity,” she wrote on X.
Arevalo faces nine legal cases brought against him by Porras.
The NGO Impunity Watch, for its part, said the selection happened “without… interviews or assessment of the candidates’ reputational standing.”
Arevalo wrote on X that “every lawmaker must assume responsibility for his or her vote.”
The new judges will take office on October 13.
The Organization of American States had expressed concern at an apparent attempt by the public prosecutor’s office to influence the selection process.
