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(EFE) – Hundreds of protesters took over the Guatemalan Congress this Saturday and set fire to several offices until they were evicted by security forces and fire brigades, who put out the fire.
The protesters, mostly hooded, broke the entrance door to Parliament and also the windows, throwing fire torches inside and advancing to destroy the facilities.
For about 10 minutes, amid the chaos, the protesters managed to set fire to a part of Congress and also destroy everything they found around them.
The deputies were not in the hemicycle and at the moment no data on injuries or deaths have been released within Congress, located in the center of Guatemala City.
The protesters were evicted as minutes passed by using tear gas canisters. by the National Civil Police, forcing them to disperse and evacuate the street. The fire brigades arrived at the scene to put out the fire, without the damage being known at the time.
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The seizure of Congress for a few minutes took place in the middle of a demonstration agreed for this Saturday by artists, groups and dozens of entities, with the aim of rejecting the budget of income and expenditures of the State for 2021, approved by Parliament, mostly pro-government, and presented by the Government of Alexander Giammattei.
In parallel, while hundreds of protesters took over Congress, thousands of other Guatemalans were peacefully demonstrating against Giammattei just one kilometer away in front of the National Palace of Culture (seat of the Government).
The Guatemalan president reacted to the demonstrations through a message on his social networks, in which iHe indicated 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 the Congress originated after the approval of the budget last Wednesday, at dawn, and without the 160 deputies having access to it.
On Friday night, after Giammattei again endorsed the budget, his vice president, Guillermo Castillo, assured at a press conference that the country is not “well” and urged Giammattei to resign together to “oxygenate” the Central American nation.
Protesters manage to enter the Guatemalan Congress pic.twitter.com/7MhEhFQhKo
– Argolla TV 🇵🇪 (@ArgollaTV) November 21, 2020
Demonstrators break into the Guatemalan Congress, amid protests over the approval – opaque and at dawn – of the 2021 budget, which cuts funds for education, health, human rights, and which puts more debt to the country. Say that Guatemala has the highest% of poverty in Latin America: pic.twitter.com/SUTfbDPKzv
– Illustrated vague (@vagoilustrado) November 21, 2020
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