*Guatemala’s leading indigenous organisation Comité de Desarrollo Campesino (Codeca) has lifted blockades staged as part of protests against the recent detention of deputy energy & mining minister Luis Pacheco, a former leader of indigenous organisation 48 Cantones de Totonicapán (48 Cantones), and 48 Cantones’ former treasurer Héctor Chaclán. The charges are widely considered political and a reprisal by the discredited Attorney General (AG) María Consuelo Porras against Pacheco and Chaclán for their leadership of massive protests in October 2023 in defence of the August electoral victory of reformist anti-corruption President Bernardo Arévalo. The lifting of blockades follows a meeting between the Codeca leadership and a sub-secretariat of the presidency in which the two agreed a further meeting would take place on 6 May between the executive and indigenous groups, on local press reports. Also yesterday, President Arévalo announced the government had presented a legal appeal against Porras and her office which seeks to guarantee due process of the “criminalised” indigenous leaders and more generally “protect indigenous peoples against the AG’s clear failure to observe national and international norms” in relation to this. Arévalo also reiterated calls for Porras, whose mandate ends in May 2026, to resign. He has previously made such calls due to the fact that he lacks the authority to remove her himself. Guatemala’s long-marginalised indigenous sector, which at some 44% of the population is the biggest in Central America, no doubt identified an Arévalo-led government as the best prospect for addressing the rampant inequality it faces and played a key role in the huge 2023 protests defending his victory.
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