LatinNews Daily - 9 May 2025

*Guatemala’s attorney general’s office (AG) has carried out a raid on Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala’s largest Pacific Ocean port, located in Escuintla department, citing a complaint regarding alleged crimes involving the country’s anti-corruption reformist President Bernardo Arévalo and his brother, Martín Arévalo. According to a social media post from the attorney general’s office, which is led by María Consuelo Porras, who has been blacklisted by the US and other members of the foreign community, three search warrants were issued for property located at the port, relating to an alleged “transaction” carried out by the president and his brother which supposedly handed over control of the country’s ports to Chinese companies. According to the AG post, this land belonged to the military pension fund (IPM) and Puerto Quetzal, which is run by Empresa Portuaria Quetzal (EPQ), a government entity. Further details were not provided. The communications secretary of the presidency was cited by Spanish newswire EFE as describing the allegations as “spurious…absurd and ridiculous”. In February the Arévalo government announced plans to expand the port with cooperation from the US Army Corps of Engineers (Usace). This is the AG’s latest move targeting Arévalo and his allies, following criminal proceedings announced last month against the 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, which have been widely criticised domestically and abroad.

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