Hundreds of Guatemalans celebrated Saturday with music, firecrackers and parody performances marking the end of eight years in office for Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who has been sanctioned by more than 40 countries that accuse her of corruption and anti-democratic conduct.
Porras ended her term Saturday after a tenure marked by efforts to block the inauguration of social-democratic President Bernardo Arévalo in 2024, as well as proceedings against dozens of former prosecutors, anti-mafia judges, journalists and Indigenous leaders, many of whom are now in exile.
As a result, the 72-year-old official was sanctioned by the United States, the European Union and other countries including Canada and the United Kingdom. The president swore in the new attorney general, Gabriel García Luna, on Friday, the same day Porras presented her final report, in which she denounced attempts to discredit her work. García Luna will take office on Sunday.
Before a crowd gathered Saturday outside the headquarters of the Public Ministry, the prosecutor’s office, in Guatemala City, some carrying national flags, an activist climbed onto an improvised stage to parody Porras, with her hair tied back, a scarf around her neck and black-rimmed glasses.
During the performance, she said she had to “keep former presidents Jimmy Morales, 2018-2020, and Alejandro Giammattei, 2020-2024, in impunity.” Both appointed her to the post, and she never investigated them despite corruption allegations. Amid boos from an audience playing along with the parody, the activist left the stage pretending to cry and mumbling “I don’t want to leave” while carrying a box of her “belongings.”
The United States accuses Porras of obstructing anti-corruption investigations to protect allies and obtain political favors. Her critics say those maneuvers served the so-called “pact of the corrupt,” an alleged network of political, economic and criminal interests said to control Guatemala’s justice system.
Porras, who failed in her attempt to secure a third term, maintains that all her actions were in accordance with the law.
