The state of Calamity decreed by Bernardo Arévalo was not well received by Congress, a parliamentary body that following extensive discussion decided to reject the president’s decision with 84 votes once morest the measure.
Several groups questioned that the emergency measure restricts constitutional guarantees and that it might be misused for excessive expenses, as it does not have transparency rules.
Government decree 1-2024 began to be discussed in the plenary session this Thursday, since Congress was officially notified last Wednesday; However, the measure was not published in the Diario de Centro América, which represents a shortcoming, in the opinion of some deputies.
In addition to the alleged errors of form in the processing of the emergency measure, some congressmen point out substantive errors in the presidential measure, one of them is that the state of Calamity seeks to limit the citizen rights contained in article 5 of the Constitution.
“What matters is the president’s intention to suspend Article 5 of the Constitution. It is important, because it is what prevents us from being persecuted for our opinions. What does that have to do with putting out a fire, nothing,” questioned deputy Álvaro Arzú Escobar, from the Unionist bloc.
The parliamentarian considers that there are only two scenarios for the decree to contemplate a restriction of such magnitude: “this tells us that the president, his cabinet and his government have a dictatorial route, or they are inept and made a copy and paste of a state of Calamity old and they left that article.”
Deputy Sergio Celis, deputy head of Cabal, a party allied to the ruling party on the Board of Directors, joined in the criticism. The legislator questioned whether there are restrictions on locomotion when the emergency is due to fires.
“They put the constitutional guarantees of the people of Guatemala at risk. The population has to know that this government has violated the guarantees of article 5 of the Magna Carta, which we do not understand,” Celis insisted.
The government of Bernardo Arévalo issued the measure arguing that there are a series of forest fires in different parts of the country, so they need to expedite State actions to respond to the emergency.
The Executive’s response comes following the Congress Board of Directors itself sent a letter to Arévalo urging the measure to be issued. The communication was also signed by some legislative blocks.
“We were extremely surprised, because we thought that this government would not use this tool. We believe that this state of Calamity is late, because yesterday at the block chiefs’ meeting it was stated that this problem had been controlled to a high percentage,” questioned Celis.
After a series of votes in which the ruling party and the opposition did not seem to have a majority, deputy Adim Maldonado, from the National Unity of Hope (UNE), presented a verbal motion to disapprove the state of Calamity, which at the time of the vote reached 84 votes.
The arguments
Evelyn Morataya, from Visión con Valores (Viva) and allied with the ruling party, criticized the Executive’s measure and recalled that the Semilla Movement, in the previous legislature, was critical of the states of exception decreed by Alejandro Giammattei. Morataya voted once morest a state of Calamity.
“This government has not even served 100 days and there are colleagues who together voted once morest the States of Calamity, and now what they bring is a blank check,” said Morataya.
The opposition questioned similar points, explaining that there is no clear reason to validate a state of Calamity, because executive authorities have already said that the fires are being controlled.
“The fund of Q110 million for the emergency has no basis to be used. We have our doubts regarding the haste in how it was presented, it was not agreed upon with the blocks,” said Byron Rodríguez, from the Todos block.
The deputies said that it is the first time that a government requires a state of Calamity to combat fires, emergencies that tend to be recurring in different parts of the country.
“I don’t know if with the state of Calamity they will be able to put out the garbage fire. Limitations must exist, so that officials do not make expenses that do not correspond to them other than to put out fires,” said Boris España, from the Vamos bloc.
They present amendment
Given the criticism once morest the State of Calamity, the ruling bloc, made up of deputies elected by the Semilla Movement, suggested incorporating some change to the decree to guarantee that there would be no abuse of authority, but their arguments were not accepted.
“We presented an amendment to guarantee Article 5, we are not here to limit constitutional rights in a whimsical way, this amendment exists and we seek to guarantee the free exercise of all Guatemalans,” said representative Andrea Reyes.
Román Castellanos supported Reyes and said that there have been bad records in the management of states of exception; However, he asked his colleagues for a vote of confidence.
“In the face of this emergency, it is reasonable that there be some reaction to immediately address the effects of the fires. It is true, we have seen that on other occasions states of exception are a tool for corruption and looting, and I am sure that is not what the current government is looking for,” Román told the plenary session.
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