Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

One Wrong Step and Guatemala Will Be a Land Mine for Marco Rubio

Panama is the easy part of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s first official trip because President Donald Trump is running the negotiation. Guatemala is more difficult because of the crimes Rubio’s predecessor Antony Blinken and his State Department (DOS) accomplices committed there.

Handled properly, DOS actions in Guatemala can catalyze dismantling the Deep State, a key Trump goal. On the other hand, mismanagement would encourage Latin American criminal dictatorships. It would show the Trump administration is shielding President Bernardo Arévalo from law enforcement.

See Steve Hecht’s conversation with Rudy Giuliani, starting at 1:07:36.

Many US law enforcement personnel, such as Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, have commented that the Biden regime’s open-border agenda was deliberate. The Guatemalan civic association Liga Pro-Patria has stated that the Biden “regime and [DOS] led the 2023 electoral fraud that placed [Arévalo] in the presidency.… This was to hide their past crimes and keep Guatemala open for the illegal flows, including child trafficking.”

The former Mexican president known as AMLO hosted several criminal colleagues on September 30, 2024, his last day in office. Among them was Cuban dictator Miguel Diaz Canel. This group has welcomed Arévalo and accepted the fraud that brought him to power. These leftist autocrats could escalate work with China and Russia to oppose Trump.

For Trump’s America-first policy to work, he must counter China’s growing penetration in Latin America, including the Panama Canal. DOS has backed various criminals as presidents in Latin America, including Lula in Brazil. With Xi Jinping of China, Lula wants to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

MAGA policies—limited government, deregulation, decentralization, and the rule of law—would promote productive economic activity anyplace. The first three depend on the rule of law for best results.

Guatemalan Attorney General Consuelo Porras properly applies the law, which has been an obstacle to DOS’s agenda. DOS took control of Guatemala’s court of last resort in 2016. However, DOS lost control in 2021, which freed Porras to legally pursue corrupt prosecutors and judges who had executed DOS’s criminal agenda.

DOS subsequently sanctioned Porras, claiming she was corruptly persecuting those who had fought corruption. Evidence showed they were corrupt.

DOS intervened in 2022 but failed to prevent Porras from being reappointed to another term. The obvious intervention provoked congressional inquiries in hearings and letters. This included an April 29, 2022, letter from senators Marco Rubio and Mike Lee to then–Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

After receiving more than 1,000 complaints about the 2023 election, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) presented evidence of electoral fraud. Metadata had been uploaded prior to counting votes. Original ballots and tally sheets had not been stored where the law mandated. The AGO searched, but 2 million out of 5.6 million votes were lost. By itself, this is grounds for annulling the 2023 election.

Under a high-court order, the AGO presented its proof of fraud to the electoral authority on December 12, 2023. However, the electoral authority has declined to respond, and the judiciary has evaded ordering the electoral authority to make a ruling.

If the law were properly applied, the election would be annulled, and Arévalo and his vice president would have to leave office. Congress would appoint a new president and vice president.

The Liga publicly stated that DOS has intimidated the judiciary not to apply the law. Rubio should immediately withdraw this intimidation and insist that the United States support the proper application of law. If he goes to Guatemala, Rubio must meet with Porras.

There is public evidence of DOS involvement in electoral fraud. If Rubio ignores it, the message to Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, Brazil’s Lula, Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, Honduras’s Xiomara Castro, Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum, Cuba’s Diaz Canel, and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega is that they too can flout democratic accountability.

There are other US benefits to investigating and exposing the truth about DOS and Guatemala. Porras has steadfastly cooperated with US security agencies regarding human and narcotics smuggling. All illegal migrants coming by land from the south must pass through Guatemala. Porras can help Trump’s Justice, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and State departments in many ways.

Rubio would help himself by gathering pertinent information before involving himself. The Guatemalan case seems complex, but it is simple when well-informed. If the public were aware of the DOS’s criminality and betrayal—which has resulted in child trafficking—public support would increase for Trump’s key goal of dismantling the Deep State.

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Steve Hecht

Steve Hecht is a businessman, writer, and film producer, born and raised in New York. He has lived and worked in Guatemala since 1972. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Master of Business Administration in Banking and Finance, both from Columbia University.

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