Guatemala: Police evacuate deputies and congressional staff in protest of ex-military

The National Civil Police of Guatemala on Tuesday evacuated deputies and workers who had been detained in Congress during a violent protest by retired soldiers, who forcibly entered the parliamentary building and burned vehicles and some of its offices.

SIGHT: Former Guatemalan military men forcibly enter Congress to demand compensation law

At least ten deputies from various benches along with their teams and the Minister of Energy and Mines, Alberto Pimentel, were released by the security forces through the main gate, on the street parallel to the parking lot of the Legislative Palace, where the military veterans entered .

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“We ran to get on the police cars and get out of there on Ninth Avenue. We are all shocked. The ex-military are too violent, they are with machetes and stones, threatening. They burned my office and destroyed cars and other offices near the parking lot, ”Seed Movement deputy Luis Fernando Pineda Lemus told Efe, seconds after being evacuated.

#Now staff of @CongresoGuate Evacuee runs away from the riots caused by ex-military this afternoon in the center of the capital city of #Guatemala.

Video: @betocardonam pic.twitter.com/IqhymiWza2

— Factor 4 (@Factor4_GT) October 19, 2021

The legislator added that there were workers and deputies with “nervous breakdown”, such as Congresswoman Karina Paz, from the National Unit of Hope, or Minister Pimentel himself, who “feels very bad.”

Another Semilla congressman, Samuel Pérez Álvarez, told Efe that the deputies were going to enter the Congress for the plenary session when the protesters turned violent, with machetes.

“We decided not to enter and we moved away from the area, but there are colleagues who have their offices inside and had to experience that tension from within,” he said.

Former combatants in the internal armed conflict request financial compensation for their services to the Guatemalan Army during the internal armed conflict (1960-1996).

During the last three weeks, the war veterans had demonstrated on several days with roadblocks, and finally this Tuesday they decided to take action against Congress.

The initiative requested by the veterans of the internal war is under analysis by the Defense, Finance and Human Rights commissions of Congress and proposes a payment of 120,000 quetzals (approximately 15,500 dollars) for each of the ex-military or their relatives if they already died, awarded in four annual payments.

Financial compensation to veterans of the internal war was one of the campaign promises of the Guatemalan President, Alejandro Giammattei, in his election campaign in 2019.

The internal war ended on December 29, 1996 with the signing of the Peace Accords between the Government and the Guerrilla made up of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit (URNG), with a balance of more than 250,000 dead and disappeared, which in more than 90% of the cases are attributed to the Guatemalan Army according to the United Nations Commission for Historical Clarification.

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Deshawn