This is the thirtieth weekly thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or IR history. I usually start off with coverage of some current events from a mix of countries I follow personally and countries I think the forum lives in or might be interested in. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
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Notes -
Guatemala
I’ve covered the Guatemalan election escapades for a while here, with the powers that be pulling every dirty trick in the book to hang onto their position, including somehow ruling that the party that won is illegal. Well now the Attorney General’s office has announced the nullification of the election due to irregularities. This is beginning to look less like an establishment flailing and more like a standard coup. The National Electoral Tribune has rejected the claim so it’s far from clear that there’s consensus among government institutions to crush Arevalo. He is nominally supposed to take power in a month on January 14; it’ll be a nail biter till then.
Modest correction: the Attorney General did not announce the nullification of the election, the Attorney General asked the electoral court to nullify the election, which the court has not done (yet).
You are correct in that this is the anti-Arrevelo establishment attempting a coup, but I'd disagree that it doesn't involve flailing. This is not the first time by any means that the prosecutor's office has tried to invalidate the election, and while the Government already targeted the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (4 of whom are in exile), it has virtually no regional or extra-regional public backing, including from the US (which sanctioned a few hundred influential Guatemalans over the weekend).
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