RIP Michael J. (Mikey) O'Connor
Search
07 Sept 2025
Search
07 Sept 2025
Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
Guatemalan agents and police raided the offices of the Seed Movement of presidential candidate Bernardo Arevalo on Friday as part of an investigation into alleged wrongdoing in the party’s formation.
Andrea Reyes, a lawyer and party member, confirmed that the agents and police had come to search for documents. The Attorney General’s office also confirmed the search.
In an audio recording shared with journalists, Mr Arevalo denounced the raid as illegal and said it “is part of the political persecution that the corrupt minority that knows it is losing power day by day is carrying out to try to intimidate us, to try to derail the electoral process … to try to topple democracy.”
The raid followed allegations earlier on Friday by Guatemalan electoral authorities that a number of state actors were attempting to interfere with the country’s presidential election.
The electoral authorities sought an order from the country’s highest court to protect the electoral process.
The country’s political system has been in disarray since the progressive Mr Arevalo came a surprising second in an initial round of voting June 25 — setting him on course to face conservative former first lady Sandra Torres in a run-off in August.
Certification of last month’s results were delayed for two weeks and the Attorney General’s office announced an investigation into how the party had gathered the necessary signatures several years earlier to form.
Prosecutors initially won a suspension of the party’s legal status from a judge, but the Constitutional Court granted a preliminary injunction blocking it.
As part of that investigation, agents searched the Supreme Electoral Tribunal for a second time on Thursday. That led the tribunal to seek an injunction from the Constitutional Court on Friday to protect the electoral process.
Mr Arevalo is scheduled to Ms Torres, the first round’s leader, in a run-off election on August 20 to succeed President Alejandro Giammattei.
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
This publication supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice of the Press Council. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, Lo-call 1800 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie.
