Open letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken

May 14, 2024

Honorable Antony J. Blinken
U.S. Secretary of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20520

OPEN LETTER TO ANTHONY BLINKEN, US SECRETARY OF STATE

Dear Secretary Blinken,

We are writing to thank you for your continued interest and support of the nascent process of democratization in Guatemala. As our name implies, Democracy for Guatemala (DEMOPAGUA) is a community of Guatemalan immigrants, and naturalized US citizens, working with North American academics, journalists, and people who have lived in Guatemala, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, who share your commitment to supporting democracy in Guatemala. As you and President Biden have stated, the U.S. and Guatemala are neighbors who have a mutual interest in eradicating the corruption and inequality that leads to migration and the illicit drug trafficking that permeate all aspects of Guatemalan life. 

Your recent visit to Guatemala to attend an International Conference on Migration contributes to an understanding that migration is not a problem of the U.S. border, but stems from a system of concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a small minority leading to extreme inequality and underdevelopment that literally forces people to migrate to survive. This environment has created the conditions for full institutional corruption as well. The democratically elected President of Guatemala, Dr. Bernardo Arevalo, recently emphasized in a speech to the nation that his government cannot promote development without fighting to eliminate corruption, which became increasingly entrenched during the two previous administrations.

We applaud the strong efforts of the Biden-Harris Administration to ensure that the elections were fair, and that the elected President be allowed to take power. The entrenched minority, spearheaded by the the Chief Prosecutor Consuelo Porras, continue to stymie reforms that could mitigate the need for migration. In fact, the legal maneuvers and attempts to carry out a legal coup have intensified as the administration has been taking measures to uproot endemic corruption. 

We welcome continued U.S. support for Guatemalan democracy, recognizing that without proactive diplomacy by The United States of America, our country of origin will not be able to overcome its governance challenges, and the democratic process initiated by President Bernardo Arévalo will continue to be in peril.

Thank you for your unequivocal and unbending commitment for democracy and prosperity in Guatemala.

Sincerely,

DEMOPAGUA

cc:
Brian A. Nichols, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs​Congresswoman Barbara Lee, 12 District of Caliornia