Guatemala’s Legislators Lit the Fire That Burned Down Their House
Fatally estranged from the public, the government has shown it can’t reform itself.
The wheels have come off the bus.
Photographer: Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images
Earthquakes, category 5 hurricanes, deadly volcano eruptions and Covid-19: Guatemala has had them all. Yet what has galvanized hemispheric attention most recently is the wholly unnatural disaster of a political establishment gone rogue and fatally estranged from the people it governs.
The epicenter was the national legislature in Guatemala City, which furious crowds vandalized and set ablaze on Nov. 21. The spark was the legislature’s decision to pass President Alejandro Giammattei’s 2021 budget, stuffed with a generous spending increase — generous, that is, for those in positions of power and privilege.