Guatemala elects Supreme Court judges with focus on fighting corruption

In Guatemala, members of the Supreme Court and judges of the Court of Appeals are elected every five years.

The court's reshuffle followed a clash last year between the judiciary and newly elected President Bernardo Arevalo. A prosecutor suspected of having ties to corrupt judges, politicians and businessmen tried to overturn his victory.

Arevalo, who won with an anti-corruption program, warned last month that the judiciary was being “hijacked by the mafia.”

Last month, he urged members of Congress to select the “best” candidates to “continue the spirit of change the country needs” and ensure “an independent judicial system.”

Former Chilean Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola, who is part of a panel of international experts overseeing the trial, said the choice of judges was a proxy war between Arevalo's camp and what she called a “corrupt pact” of entrenched political and other interests.

“They have lost the executive power and now they don’t want to lose the judiciary,” she said.

In a preliminary report last week, the panel expressed “concern” about signs of “parallel negotiations by corrupt political-economic actors” to favor candidates associated with them.

To win the election, candidates must receive more than 50 percent of the votes of the country's 160 congressional representatives.

Guatemala is ranked the 30th most corrupt country in the world by the non-governmental organization Transparency International.

Through his fight against corruption, Arévalos came into the crosshairs of prosecutors who were themselves accused of corruption.

The most prominent face of the anti-Arevalo camp is Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who led the unsuccessful effort to have her August 2023 election victory declared invalid.

Porras is subject to US and EU sanctions for corruption.

One of her allies, prosecutor Dimas Jimenez, is running for election to the Supreme Court.

Rafael Curruchiche, another Porras confidant who was also subject to US and EU sanctions, narrowly missed being on the appeals court's shortlist.

Curruchiche led the state's case against prominent journalist Jose Ruben Zamora, who was jailed last year for money laundering. The case was widely seen as an attempt to silence critics of then-President Alejandro Giammattei.

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