Above Photo: Palin Mayor Alida Vicente (L) at a press conference, Guatemala City, July 23, 2023. Twitter/@andread_gtv.
“Criminal structures do not want to relinquish power,” said Alida Vicente, mayor of Palin, Guatemala. On Sunday July 23, the Highlands Farmers Committee (CCDA), the Palin Indigenous Mayor’s Office, and students from the University of San Carlos (USAC) called for a “March of Flowers” to defend democracy in Guatemala.
This happens at a time when the Prosecutor’s Office is carrying out persecution against the Seed Movement party (Semilla) which may jeopardize the holding of the presidential run-off scheduled for August 20.The “Flowers March” seeks to oppose the “dark political landscape” that Guatemalan elites are trying to consolidate, said Vicente.
“In our country, we need to see a new dawn and a blossoming. We need to rebuild a new nation,” she said.
“Small mobilizations are no longer enough. We need a massive mobilization without partisan objectives and with clear objectives in defense of the common good,” added Vicente.
Since 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, progressive social and political organizations are marching from the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) to the Constitutional Court (CC). Later, they will go to the Presidential House and, finally, to the headquarters of the Prosecutor’s Office.
In the first round of the presidential elections held on June 25, Bernardo Arevalo, a social democratic politician sponsored by the Seed Movement, came in second place, after Sandra Torres, who participated with the support of the National Unity of Hope.