According to press sources, starting on the 25th groups of between 50 to 100 people were blocking main thoroughfares near the towns of Zunil, El Zarco and Nahaluate. Other examples include blockades of highways such as in Alta Verapaz in the north, Cuyotenango in the south and Coatepeque in the west.
"At the same time in the center of the city of Quetzalentango, over 800 university students called for the immediate resignation of the president and suspension of the upcoming elections, while protestors shut down roads from the four cardinal directions leading into Guatemala City.
"All of the protests mentioned the need for a National Constituent Assembly for a “profound reform of the Constitution of the Republic.”
While protestors did celebrate the resignation of Perez Molina on September, their other call for the National Constituent Assembly has not happened as of press time."
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/09/25/indigenous-people-guatemala-protests-lead-resignation-president-161860
swirlsofhistory posted:I hope while protesters get what they want.
"Media coverage of the soft coup in Guatemala has implausibly framed events there as if they were some kind of cathartic exorcism of a long standing political culture of corruption. But all that has happened points more to a no-holds-barred internal power struggle within the Guatemalan political, business and military elites, supported by their respective regional backers, changing practically nothing. Recent events have been a kind of extreme psycho-political burlesque in which the unaccountable U.N. created International Commission Against Impunity for Guatemala has again taken part in an irredeemably politicized criminal prosecution similar to its role in the case of Rodrigo Rosenberg that almost brought down then President Alvaro Colom in 2009."
"http://www.telesurtv.net/english/bloggers/Corruption-and-Its-Uses-from-Guatemala-to-Colombia-20150917-0001.html"
.“In reality we see the CICIG (the U.N.'s International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala) as an intervention of United States,” he said. “So it is the United States meddling, because it is they who are giving orders to the commission.”
Perez Molina finally bowed to pressure last week and resigned as president, but only after the Guatemalan congress voted in favor of stripping him of his immunity to face trial for corruption. Immediately after, a judge ordered a travel ban on the former president and then a warrant for his arrest was issued.
In August, Reuters said United States had pressured Perez Molina into supporting the CICIG.
The British news agency said that President Barack Obama began imposing conditions on a plan to boost the economies of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Obama reportedly told Perez Molina that if he didn't approve extending the mandate of the CICIG that Guatemala would not get any of the funds linked to the US$20 billion plan to increase jobs, infrastructure and boost the economy in order to reduce migration to the United States.
Perez Molina also recently revealed that Washington and even President Obama himself opposed his proposal to decriminalize drugs in the Central American region, and that they boycotted a meeting in 2012, when his plan was going to be discussed by the presidents of the area"
"http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Perez-Molina-Says-US-Involved-in-Soft-Coup-Against-Him--20150910-0002.html".
https://twitter.com/adam_wola/status/637096580038946816
HenryKrinkle posted:i became suspicious of the protests as soon as this tweet came across my feed:
https://twitter.com/adam_wola/status/637096580038946816
lmao
Morales rose to fame as a TV comedian, starring in the series Moralejas ("Morals") alongside his brother Sammy. In 2011, he ran as mayoral candidate in Mixco for the small right-wing Action for National Development party. In 2013, he joined the small National Convergence Front (FCN/Nation) and became its secretary-general.
In 2015 he was nominated as the FCN's presidential candidate. He was initially considered an outsider but surprisingly finished first in the first round of the election, qualifying for the runoff. He runs on a platform of conservative values and against corruption. His slogan is "Neither corrupt nor a thief" (Ni corrupto, ni ladrón). He identifies as a nationalist, supports the death penalty and opposes abortion. Moreover, he denies that a genocide against the Ixil Maya took place. Morales' success came after both former vice president Roxana Baldetti and outgoing president Otto Pérez Molina had to step down and were arrested on fraud and corruption charges (La Linea corruption case). His success was viewed as a sign of the distrust of many Guatemalans towards the traditional political elite.
Jimmy Morales Wins Guatemalan Presidential Election in Landslide
