Video: Hooded protesters seize Guatemala’s Congress and set it on fire

In the midst of a climate of social tension, Hundreds of protesters took control of the Guatemalan Congress on Saturday and torched several offices before being expelled by security forces and firefighters, who put out the fire.

The demonstrators, mostly hooded, smashed the front door of the Parliament as well as the windows, throwing torches of fire inside and advancing to destroy the facilities.

For about 10 minutes, in the midst of the chaos, protesters managed to set part of Congress on fire and destroy everything they found around them.

The deputies were not in the hemicycle and for the moment, data on injuries or deaths have not been published in the Congress, located in the center of the capital.

Protesters were evicted as minutes passed by the launch of tear gas canisters by the national civilian police, forcing them to disperse and evacuate the street.

Firefighters arrived on the scene to extinguish the fire, without the damage being known at the time.

The reasons for the social conflict in Guatemala

The taking of the Congress for a few minutes took place in the middle of a demonstration agreed for this Saturday by artists, collectives and dozens of entities, with the objective of rejecting the State revenue and expenditure budget for 2021, approved by Parliament, in his majority party, and presented by the government of Alejandro Giammattei.

At the same time, as hundreds of demonstrators took control of Congress, thousands of other Guatemalans demonstrated peacefully against Giammattei just one kilometer outside the National Palace of Culture (seat of government).

The Guatemalan president reacted to the protests with a post on his social media, in which he said that “you have the right to demonstrate according to the law” but “we cannot allow you to vandalize public or private property” .

The apathy against Giammattei and Congress arose after the approval of the budget last Wednesday, at dawn, and without the 160 deputies having access to it.

On Friday evening, after Giammattei approved the budget again, its vice president, Guillermo Castillo, assured at a press conference that the country is not doing “well” and urged Giammattei to resign together to “oxygenate” the nation. Central America.

PJB