BERNARDO Arevalo, a reformist who has been fighting corruption and has promised to address the rising cost of living and violence in Guatemala was finally inaugurated on Monday after attempts to undermine his election victory.
Arevalo won the presidential elections by a landslide in August last year, he received more than 60 percent of the run of vote, replacing conservative politician Alejandro Giammattei, whose administration has been plagued with corruption issues.
Prior to officially being given power in office, the new president-elect’s inauguration was supposed to start at 3:00 pm, local time.
However, the Congress, which is controlled by right-wing parties, suspended the ceremony.
Supporters of the President’s Semilla Party threatened to storm Congress after the Supreme Court allowed opposition lawmakers to maintain their leadership of Congress.
Protesters also demanded the immediate inauguration of Arevalo, and they ended up clashing with the police.
However, things took a turn when Semilla lawmaker Samuel Perez Alvarez unexpectedly won as the Congress president.
But the international community, including several Latin American countries, have called for the election win of Arevalo to be respected.
