Otto Pérez Molina. Flickr. Some rights reserved.

Taking away the
immunity and arresting President Otto Pérez Molina, whose government was
promoted and financed by corporations and the military, who also took over its
ministries, is an attempt to “redeem”, through his “sacrifice”, the Barabbases of
Guatemala. Those Barabbases (from Barabbas,
the insurrectionary who, according to the accounts of the Passion of Christ,
was freed by Pontius Pilate freed at
the Passover feast in Jerusalem, instead of releasing Jesus) who, in Guatemala, have been robbing and
pillaging the State and the people’s wealth for almost two centuries.

Now that the
corrupt criminal ringleaders have been identified and arrested or imprisoned,
will the anti-corruption heroes reveal the names of the corporate fraudsters
who lead the corruptors’ criminal network?

In the city
squares, will citizens, students, civil society keep demanding the punishment
of the businessmen who have been bribing a corrupt government?

Will the rich
continue to call through their media for citizen mobilization against corrupting
businessmen and high-ranking military?

How does
Guatemala look now, with an arrested and humiliated head of State, in the eyes
of the international community?

It was truly impressive
to witness how the main culprits, over the last 4 months of urban outrage, blended
in the crowd of protestors demanding the resignation and punishment of their pawn
government that had siphoned off the corruption booty. Not only they ended up
directing and planning the demonstrations, but they also managed to successfully
wipe away any lingering suspicion against them.

The Barabbases came
out in the streets, mimicking the emotional protestors who, in their thousands,
were screaming as loud as they could: Crucify
him! Crucify him! No doubt about it: the mass media can turn criminals into
heroes.

No need to
reinvent the State

The 132 members
of Congress, who unanimously voted to impeach President Otto Pérez on September
1st, had refused to decide, only three weeks earlier, on a similar motion. What
sort of “sublime” interests set off this “honorable” decision that ignited such
euphoric celebration in most of the cities across the country?

“The humiliated
Congress of the Republic is functioning, and there is no reason to cast a null
vote or to be absent from the next elections,” seems to be the key message
implanted in the minds of Guatemalan citizens who, until September 1st,
were determined to invalidate their votes in order to punish ineffective and
corrupt representatives. This saved the general elections on September 6!

Not only the
elections were saved, but also the substantial investments made by businessmen
to finance their candidates/pawns’ campaigns. In other words, pending a run-off
due on October 25 and the formation of a new government, the “democratic
banquet” binge of the financing companies will then go on, only now with a rearrangement
of the criminal networks.

If the
elections and the electoral investments are saved, then the corrupt political
system that turned the State into a gendarmerie of abusive and invasive private
investment (national and foreign) is saved too. The corporations’ neoliberal
bacchanal is here to stay.

By imprisoning
former Vice President Roxana Baldetti and striking President Otto Pérez (who
will be taken to court), Guatemala’s bosses (the Guatemalan business leaders’
association – CACIF – and the U.S. Embassy) have implanted another key idea in
the minds of the people: “The judicial system does work and delivers justice. There
is no point in continuing the protests.”

And if the
judicial system works, then “the laws and the Constitution serve their purpose
and are effective. Subsequently, why should we be thinking of a Constituent
Assembly to change the country’s legal system? It is pointless to think of
electing judges by popular vote.” That is the additional message.

We have won.
Let us all go home.

One of the
major achievements of this theatrical destitution by the Guatemalan élites is
not only the turning of criminals into heroes (corrupt corporate leaders and
military officers), but also the demobilization and control of the outraged
citizens’ impetuous movement that, like a volcanic magma, was threatening to
sweep corrupt officials everywhere.

After the
almost orgasmic destitution celebration party, where citizens bearing sticks had
the opportunity to beat Roxana and Otto dummies, it seems that Guatemalans will
enjoy some satisfaction without any further concern.

Yet the
criminals will keep on controlling and managing all “the lines”, including the
failed State, which has now obviously been turned into a structure for their misdeeds.

With the citizens’
demobilization and the “normalization” of the general elections to
re-legitimize this morally wrong state of affairs, Guatemala’s bosses will be
avoiding the democratic Bolivianization
or Ecuadorianization that shook off
their rich, neoliberal abusive colleagues 10 years ago.

Do all those
who celebrated “the democratic triumph against corruption” naïvely and ignorantly
believe this crude theatrical reality?

Does the
impeachment of two criminal ringleaders resolve the country’s capital sins that
tie it to its grim fate?

Will resistant,
organized indigenous and campesino
communities renounce their agenda to refound the country through a popular,
plurinational, constitutional process?

This article was first published by La línea de fuego.