The State Department’s dictatorial, criminal agenda

Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy on December 9 and 10 was farcical because the Biden regime is anti-democratic. It abrogates the law on our southern border, imposes unconstitutional mandates, promotes division and hate between groups of people, and persecutes political enemies while protecting corrupt political allies.

Consistent with his totalitarian bent, Biden omitted US ally Guatemala from his event. Guatemala is a democratic republic and geopolitically pivotal regarding the illegal flows of narcotics and migrants. Guatemala is also a long-time ally of two bulwarks of liberty:Israel and Taiwan.

Guatemala’s sin was removing from government this year the criminals Biden had imposed as Barack Obama’s point men in Central America. Two examples are former high-court magistrate Gloria Porras and prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval. Without these criminals to do their bidding, Biden’s regime is openly attacking Guatemala and opposing efforts towards rule of law.

In 2015, Biden leveraged US money to bludgeon Guatemala’s president to extend the term of what Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) called “an activist, out-of-control UN agency” (the CICIG). Former Ambassador to Guatemala Todd Robinson used CICIG power in 2016 to extort Guatemala’s congressional leaders to appoint Gloria Porras as magistrate of Guatemala’s Constitutional Court (CC), its last word on judicial matters. Biden appointed Robinson this year to head the State Department (DOS) counternarcotics division (INL).

Congressman Fernando Linares stated that CC magistrates had told him Porras dictated rulings by telling other magistrates the US ambassador wanted them. During her 2016–2021 term, Porras issued numerous illegal political rulings,including on cases to which she and some fellow magistrates were parties.

The US embassy pressured Guatemala’s state university this year to make Porras its appointee to the CC for the 2021–2026 term. A recent report on the university’s appointment process showed a Biden-like disregard for law. Just as Democrats push voice votes for unionization so thugs can intimidate workers to vote to unionize, socialists in control of the university held a voice vote despite the law and the university’s own statute mandating a secret ballot.

If the first two rounds fail to produce a winner, the statute provides for a runoff the next day between the two top vote getters. In March, the university council held 12 rounds in six hours until Porras won. Several sources reported pressure to vote for Porras from students, faculty, and the embassy.

Numerous parties have challenged the process regarding various illegalities. Under Guatemalan law, Congress cannot swear in Porras while challenges are pending.

Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols characterized Congress not swearing in Porras on April 13 with other magistrates as a “maneuver [that] undermines Guatemala’s commitment to an independent judiciary and addressing systemic corruption.” Porras fled to the United States fearing prosecution for her many crimes and was hailed by Kamala Harris at the White House as “fighting for justice.”

The university council’s subsequent June ruling denying a challenge was extra-constitutional (arbitrary). It was like judge Emmet Sullivan ignoring Supreme Court precedent to continue prosecuting General Michael Flynn as judge and prosecutor after the Justice Department withdrew the charges.

Before Congress was to take up the Porras issue in August, a court suspended the university council’s June ruling, again impeding Porras’s swearing in. The Foundation Against Terrorism, a nonprofit civic group, obtained a ruling from the CC ordering Congress not to swear in the university’s appointment until all challenges were resolved.

Nichols bleated the CC ruling “prevented the swearing in of a duly elected magistrate in a process that had been carefully reviewed and affirmed by the electing institution in accordance with Guatemalan law.” The university had, in fact, violated the law.

Nichols added the ruling “is disturbing as it supports the motions filed by an organization with a documented history of undermining democratic processes.” This obvious reference to the Foundation Against Terrorism is like telling Judicial Watch it undermines democracy by its court filings.

Sandoval headed the special branch against impunity in the Prosecutor General’s Office and was the CICIG’s spearhead. Guatemala’s solicitor general filed a criminal complaint against Sandoval for illegally giving a release to the notorious Odebrecht, costing Guatemala a chance to recover $384 million. Two key witnesses in a case Sandoval prosecuted recanted their testimony, saying  they had been coerced by the prosecution to lie. The judge certified the criminality.

Despite Sandoval’s public criminality, DOS gave him an award apparently created to promote him as an anti-corruption champion. After Prosecutor General Consuelo Porras fired Sandoval on July 23, DOS put Porras on a list of corrupt people and canceled her US visa.

Through diplomatic channels, Porras twice offered to clarify to DOS her reasons for firing Sandoval. DOS has ignored the offer.

If they accept, DOS will have indisputable written proof their anti-corruption champion is a criminal. This could eventually lead to an investigation that would expose DOS actions in Guatemala for the last 10 years as an anti-US criminal enterprise.

Biden criminality in Guatemala predicted and explains his regime’s criminality at home. The United States now lacks the moral authority to hold a summit for democracy.

First published in BizPac Review.