CC maintains protection against Consuelo Porras by rejecting Bernardo Arévalo’s request

Justice

CC maintains protection against Consuelo Porras by rejecting Bernardo Arévalo’s request

Constitutional Court rejects Bernardo Arévalo’s request and maintains protection of Attorney General Consuelo Porras.

The confrontation between President Bernardo Arévalo and prosecutor Consuelo Porras has escalated in recent weeks. (Photo Prensa Libre: AFP)

The Constitutional Court (CC) rejected on Wednesday, August 14, President Bernardo Arévalo’s request to remove a ban that prevents him from dismissing Attorney General Consuelo Porras.

“In the opinion of this Court, the circumstances that made it advisable to grant provisional protection remain (…), the request to revoke the interim protection granted by this Court at the time” to the prosecutor is not granted, indicates the CC resolution.

On May 7, the constitutional entity granted Porras an injunction requiring Arévalo and other officials to “refrain” from “any act that, outside the constitutional and legal framework, threatens the mandate for which the prosecutor was elected” until 2026.

The conflict between Arévalo and Porras, who has been accused by the United States and the European Union of being “corrupt” and “undemocratic”, has escalated in the last week with accusations filed in the courts.

On July 31, Porras asked to indict Arévalo for promoting reforms to obtain his removal, which allegedly violates the order issued in May by the high court.

A day later, the president asked the Supreme Court to lift the immunity and proceed with the dismissal of Porras, whom he accuses of endangering democracy with controversial investigations that cast doubt on the presidential transition in January.

Since 2022, the prosecutor’s office has ordered investigations against dozens of former justice officials in charge of corruption cases, journalists, activists and critics of the previous government of right-wing Alejandro Giammattei (2020-2024).

Arévalo has publicly called for Porras to resign and in May introduced a bill to obtain the power to remove her, but the bill has not advanced in Congress.