Guatemala police arrest member of President Bernardo Arévalo’s administration

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala’s police arrested a member of President Bernardo Arévalo’s administration Tuesday for alleged campaign finance violations amid a months-long pursuit of his political party by federal prosecutors.

Ligia Hernández, head of the government’s victims’ advocacy agency and a former lawmaker for the Seed Movement Party, said in a video posted to the social platform X that prosecutors had issued an order for her arrest.

Prosecutors said later in a statement that Hernández faced a charge that roughly translates to not reporting funds used in a political campaign.

Arévalo’s administration did not immediately comment on her arrest.

“This desperate attack represents nothing more than the perverse desire to silence, oppress, extinguish any attempt to recover our country,” Hernández said in her video.

Chief prosecutor Consuelo Porras has investigated Arévalo’s party alleging wrongdoing in the gathering of signatures required for its formation. The effort did not succeed in derailing Arévalo’s inauguration, but has dogged his administration.

Critics, as well as Arévalo, have dismissed the investigation as politically motivated and a last-ditch attempt by Guatemala’s powerful and corrupt to protect themselves from Arévalo’s campaign promise to restart the fight against corruption.