Latin America: the double whammy of the coronavirus in Guatemala: a collapsed health system and more poverty
Hundreds of protesters took over the Guatemalan Congress this Saturday and
set fire to several offices
until they were evicted by security forces and fire departments, who put out the fire.
The protesters, mostly hooded,
broke the entrance door to Parliament and also the windows,
throwing torches of fire inside and advancing to destroy the facilities.
For about 10 minutes, amid the chaos, the protesters managed to set fire to a part of Congress and also
destroy everything they found
around them.
The deputies were not in the hemicycle and at the moment no data on injuries or deaths have been released within the Congress, located in the center of Guatemala City.
The protesters were evicted as the minutes passed by the launch of
tear gas canisters
by the National Civil Police, forcing them to disperse and evacuating the street.
The fire brigades arrived at the scene to put out the fire, without the damage being known at the time.
The seizure of Congress for a few minutes took place in the middle of
a demonstration agreed
for this Saturday by artists, groups and dozens of entities, with the aim of rejecting the budget of income and expenditures of the State for 2021, approved by Parliament, in its official majority, and presented by the Government of Alejandro Giammattei.
In parallel, while hundreds of protesters took over Congress, thousands of other Guatemalans were
peacefully demonstrating against Giammattei just one kilometer
away in front of the National Palace of Culture (seat of the Government).
The Guatemalan president reacted to the demonstrations through a message on his social networks, in which he indicated that "you have the right to demonstrate in accordance with the law" but
"we cannot allow you to vandalize
public or private property."
The apathy against Giammattei and the Congress originated after the
approval of the budget last Wednesday,
at dawn, and without the 160 deputies having access to it.
On Friday night, after Giammattei endorsed the budget again, his vice president,
Guillermo Castillo,
assured at a press conference that the country is not "well" and urged Giammattei to resign together to "oxygenate" the nation. Central American.
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