LatinNews Daily - 12 July 2024

*Guatemala’s 160-member unicameral legislature has rejected a decree presented by President Bernardo Arévalo declaring a state of calamity in response to rains which have caused major damage in the country. The decree would have enabled resources to be re-allocated to addressing the impact of the rains and accelerated other procedures to tackle it. According to state news agency Agencia Guatemalteca de Noticias (AGN), some 5.42m people have been affected over the rainy season since 29 April. Over the last 24 hours, 27 new incidents, including landslides, floods, and mudslides, were registered affecting ten departments (Escuintla, Sololá, Quetzaltenango, Sacatepéquez, Alta Verapaz, Quiché, Chiquimula, Jutiapa, Suchitepéquez and Totonicapán). According to the same report, since 29 April 1,246 incidents have taken place at a national level, resulting in 17 deaths, 13 people injured, 28 people needing to be hospitalised, and 715 people requiring shelter. Guatemala’s national coordinator for disaster reduction (Conred) reported that 769 homes were at risk as a result of the rains, with 338 having registered severe damage, 5,910 registering moderate damage, and 680 registering light damage. Also affected were 40 schools, 505 highways, 13 buildings, and 40 bridges while five bridges were destroyed. This is the second time that congress has rejected a decree by Arévalo declaring a state of calamity after it did so in April in relation to forest fires. The legislature remains largely aligned with the ‘pacto de corruptos’ network of institutional corruption which Arévalo, an anti-corruption reformer, had pledged to take on.