Despite having counted for the second time with the support of the Constitutional Court (CC) to continue with the tenth ordinary session, the opposition blocks failed to approve a legislative agenda that benefited them with the redistribution of commissions, changes in the monetary board and mainly in the election of the first secretary of the Board of Directors of the Congress.
This situation has caused that the first ordinary session of this year ends with a stagnation in the Legislative, since both the blocks that support the ruling and the opposition alliance do not have enough votes to be able to boost an agenda that has benefits for all parties.
At the beginning of the session, the president of Congress, Nery Ramos, asked the second secretary, Mario Ernesto Gálvez, to physically corroborate the assistance of the deputies, in compliance with the ordered by the CC in file 3051-2025, which gave with place the due execution that was presented by the opposition blocks headed by Allan Rodríguez, of us.
This is how the vivid voice of the deputies, through the list and in alphabetical order, which resulted in the assistance of 146 deputies present and 14 absent in the hemicycle.
Subsequently, Gálvez proceeded to read the resolution of the CC that ordered the resumption of the session again. The resolution of the amparo granted to the will, opportunity and solidarity (you), which requested the dismissal of Deputy Karina Paz of the first Secretariat of Congress, which ended with its removal, was also read to the amparo resolution.
In addition, the office of the Chief of Bank of VOS, Jairo Flores, who communicated the decision of his block of not occupying said position was read, arguing differences with the decisions of the rest of the directive.
Once the reading of resolutions and trades were finished, the first point of the agenda proposed by the opposition was approached: the election of the new first secretary. It was then that Deputy Nery Rodas, of the Cabal Block, requested the review of the quorum.
Ramos agreed to the application and ordered parliamentarians to register their assistance through fingerprint. However, only 75 deputies remained in the hemicycle, so the lack of quorum was declared and the session was lifted.
Reactions
At the end of the session, Samuel Pérez of the official block said that this was “another great defeat for Allan Rodríguez, Sandra Torres and their deputies”, showing that they did not have the necessary votes to approve the agenda they promoted, and that it will continue to occur “as many times as necessary.”
Regarding the interest of the opposition block to choose in this session the first secretary of the Board of Directors, Pérez said the interests are “coup plotters and are against the people of Guatemala”, since they intend to return to the “system of corruption and looting of the treasury.” He also said they will seek consensus with other related deputies to propose a candidate to occupy the first secretariat.
Rodríguez, head of the Vamos Block, commented that the deputies related to the government break quorum, since they “are afraid” that the opposition alliance has the votes to approve the agenda they drive. He also indicated that they were aware that deputies of several legislative blocks were summoned to the Ministry of Finance, where they were “threatened” by Minister Jonathan Menkos to support the official block, since otherwise they would not receive funds for projects in their localities, so several agreed.
In addition, the opponent pointed out that his bench gave up proposing a candidate for the first secretariat, and agreed with deputies from other blocks to propose the candidate to hold the position.
Neither from one side nor of the other
Inés Castillo, head of the UNE block, stressed that the result that could be observed on Tuesday afternoon in the hemicycle reflects that “the votes are nowhere”, so it is now necessary to seek a political agreement to this problem that keeps Congress stagnant.
“Here we must discuss a political agenda, we must file the roughness of what has happened in the Congress of the Republic and that the President – we also – also lowered a couple of lines to their behavior,” said the parliamentarian, who added that the opposition alliance has not lost strength.
As for a possible candidate for the first secretariat, he said: “As the political forces are behaving, it will be at the time of the proposal that the candidate will be known.”
Likewise, about the development of the ordinary session, the president of Congress, Nery Ramos, declared that it was carried out “in strict compliance with the provisions of the Constitutional Court.” Likewise, he called on the deputies of the different blocks to continue the dialogue process and look for agreements around a legislative agenda that addresses the others of the Guatemalans.
As for the first secretariat, he explained that the dialogues will continue and will be scheduled within the period established in the law of the legislative body.
The first ordinary session ends
Because in the last week the instance of block leaders was not convened and no sessions agenda for this week was approved as a result of the resolution of the CC to continue with the 19 ordinary session that took place last Tuesday, there will be no ordinary session on Thursday, May 15, so it concludes the first ordinary period of this year.
To form the permanent commission, without giving details, Ramos reported that it will be carried out within the period that the law determines.