Global Courant 2023-04-21 00:08:20
Political opposition groups from San Antonio Ilotenango, Quiché, had an altercation outside the courts of Santa Cruz del Quiché after a resolution for a case of electoral violence in 2019
The incident occurred on Wednesday, April 19, after a judge revoked the legal figure of acceptance of charges to 11 accused of electoral disturbances in San Antonio Ilotenango.
The judge of the First Criminal Instance of Santa Cruz del Quiché, Jorge Maynor Acevedo, decided to sentence the 11 people to four years in prison, commutable at a rate of Q5 per day, for a total of Q7 thousand 300 to avoid going to prison, and for the crime of aggravated arson.
In December 2022, those now sentenced they accepted the legal figure of acceptance of charges and pleaded guilty, which reduced their sentence by a third and they had to pay Q97 thousand each as damages in order to avoid jail, but the defendants did not pay the aforementioned figure and Judge Acevedo revoked the decision.
Rudy Arreola, defense attorney, was satisfied with the sentence and it was clear that his sponsors could not pay that amount of money.
Cleider Meza, lawyer for the joint plaintiffs, including the mayor of San Antonio Ilotenango, Domingo Ajeataz Chó, opposed the judge’s ruling and assured that his clients were left unprotected by not covering the damages caused by the defendants who They accepted the facts.
“It is not possible for the judge to reduce their commutation and release them, we are about to present an amparo before the judge’s resolution,” he announced.
While the mayor of San Antonio Ilotenango regretted the resolution and said that “the events that occurred during the last elections were left in impunity.”
He added: “Now they are sending us to a civil trial to hear about the damages, that is not possible, but we will move on.
One of the defendants expressed that justice had been done and “that God had saved them”, then he criticized the mayor chief and indicated that “he believed he had all the power in the municipality and that he even placed his son as a candidate for deputy” .
When they left the courts, the defendants set off firecrackers. When they saw the mayor leave, they claimed him for the accusation against him.
Before this, Domingo Ajeataz replied that he was not a “house burner” and the defendants responded with insults, until the mayor’s security removed him from the place.
How were the incidents
In the 2019 elections, at the end of the electoral event, there were riots in San Antonio Ilotenango, where a group of people destroyed several voting centers, burned the mayor’s house, a hardware store owned by his son, and several vehicles.
Due to these incidents, the municipal elections were repeated and 12 people were subsequently arrested.
Currently, the municipality is within those marked as a red zone for probable electoral disturbances for the next elections in June 2023.
