Why Joe Biden installed a communist in Guatemala
by Steve Hecht
On July 7, I explained that the State Department (DOS) had illegally intervened in Guatemala’s election to hide its crimes there. DOS has intimidated Guatemalans into acquiescing to the DOS agenda, including making communist Bernardo Arévalo their next president. His Semilla party website refers to “odious inequalities generated by uncontrolled capitalism.”
Calling Arévalo an anticorruption crusader, as the Biden-partner New York Times did, is like calling Joe and Hunter Biden anticorruption crusaders. Arévalo has embraced former prosecutors and judges who are fugitives under DOS protection with voluminous evidence of criminality against them.
Biden has much to hide in Guatemala, which explains his intervention there. Former President Otto Pérez (2012–2015) said Biden pressured him to give a US company a lucrative contract and to extend the mandate of a criminal UN anti-impunity commission (CICIG). Pérez said Biden traveled to Guatemala three times in 12 months and had a financial interest in the US company.
DOS led the jailing and persecution of the board members of the state institution in 2015 that had granted the contract to the US company’s competitor. A 2017 review by Guatemala’s official state auditing entity found the institution had acted properly. All defendants were found not guilty, but two had already died while held illegally in prison.
US House Oversight Committee revelations of Biden corruption show a pattern that makes Biden’s Guatemala actions worthy of investigation.
US Ambassador to Guatemala Todd Robinson (2014–2017) used the CICIG to take over the country’s justice system. Meanwhile, the CICIG became an agent of the Russian government by persecuting a Russian refugee family fleeing Putin crimes against them, according to Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS).
Former CICIG Commissioner Iván Velásquez, former Prosecutor General Thelma Aldana, and former head anti-impunity prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval granted releases to Odebrecht. These, in exchange for nothing, were for Guatemala’s $384 million claim against Odebrecht. A court annulled the releases and issued arrest warrants for Aldana and Sandoval, whom DOS protects.
These are some of the crimes Arévalo and his DOS handlers expect to hide through his presidency. House committees should immediately investigate Biden’s and Robinson’s roles in them. Biden’s naming of Robinson as assistant secretary of state in 2021 coincides with them having committed crimes together. Their illegal actions to take over Guatemala’s justice system in 2015 and 2016 and in election interference this year compel investigation.
The Biden’s regime’s weaponizing of the US government against its most visible domestic opponent, Donald Trump, and against Guatemala shows its Marxist nature and contempt for law. The regime is trying to provoke its opponents, through lawfare and demonization, to respond in kind, lowering themselves to Biden-regime standards. We must be better than that and can learn from a Biden victim, Guatemala’s Prosecutor General Consuelo Porras.
After DOS lost control of Guatemala’s high court in 2021, Porras fired Sandoval. His crimes were notorious and included obstructing a US Department of Homeland Security referral regarding money laundering of USAID money. DOS sanctioned Porras for corruption without citing any evidence.
Porras continued prosecuting DOS criminal agents and was meticulous in publicly respecting their rights and releasing evidence to support her actions. The US Justice Department on March 16 praised Guatemalan law enforcement for unprecedented cooperation. The praise did not mention Porras nor her ministry, probably in deference to DOS. However, that cooperation could not have occurred without Porras ordering it.
We need a US attorney general in 2025 who will fearlessly apply the law in a public and proper manner to officials who have violated it.
Unfortunately, the chairmen of the two congressional foreign relations committees—a Democrat and a Republican—supported and even urged DOS weaponization by repeating its false claims against Porras. They accused her of illegally persecuting Arévalo’s political party. This was despite evidence of 5,000 falsified signatures and at least 18 dead people having signed on as party members to achieve Semilla’s registration threshold.
The chairmen need to know that DOS intimidation caused the Constitutional Court to: (1) rule that the electoral authorities had complied with its recount order after the first round of voting despite evidence to the contrary and (2) ignore legal challenges showing multiple electoral law violations. To avoid risking DOS wrath, the Constitutional Court is unlikely to cancel Arévalo’s Semilla party despite the overwhelming evidence of its fraudulent registration.
Unsurprisingly, Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) supports DOS because Democrats have become the party of criminality. Surprisingly, Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) joined him in urging DOS weaponization. McCaul has supported Taiwan and opposed the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has sanctioned him. Next year, McCaul will likely have to explain why he supported the fraudulent installation of a Marxist in Guatemala who then cut relations with Taiwan and established them with the CCP.
On July 14 McCaul asked Biden for more Engel List sanctions under a 2020 law McCaul had championed. DOS has violated that and other US laws with its politically targeted sanctions. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has criticized DOS misuse of these sanctions.
McCaul can reverse course and join House leadership’s campaign to investigate and expose weaponization. Maybe he has not realized the nefariousness of the Biden regime and the DOS officials perpetrating this fraud.
McCaul should begin investigating Biden and DOS criminality, for which Guatemala provides a perfect starting point. This would help expose federal bureaucracy and Biden betrayal and remove DOS from supporting our enemies and attacking our allies.
First published in BizPac Review.