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The protesters, mostly hooded, they broke the entrance door to Parliament and also the windows, throwing torches of fire inside and moving forward to destroy the facilities.
For about 10 minutes, amid the chaos, the protesters managed to set fire to a part of the congress and also destroy everything they found around them.
The deputies were not in the place and at the time no data on injuries or deaths have been disclosed within the congress, located in the center of Guatemala City.
The protesters were evicted as minutes passed by tear gas bombs by the National Civil Police, forcing them to disperse and evacuate the street.
A group of protesters has set fire to the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala in the framework of the demonstrations against the increase in the general budget of the nation for the period 2021.#political crisis #Guatemala pic.twitter.com/czJ97tpJaO
– Santiago Button 🇬🇹 (@SantiagoteleSUR) November 21, 2020
Fire brigades arrived at the scene to put out the fire, without the damage being known at the time.
The taking 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 to reject the budget of income and expenditures of the State for 2021, approved by Parliament, in its majority ruling party, and presented by the Government of Alejandro Giammattei.
In parallel, while hundreds of protesters took the congress, other thousands of Guatemalans they were demonstrating peacefully against Giammattei just a kilometer away in front of the National Palace of Culture.
I reiterate that you have the right to demonstrate according to the law. But neither can we allow it to vandalize with public or private property. Whoever is proven his participation in these criminal acts will fall under the full weight of the law.
– Alejandro Giammattei (@DrGiammattei) November 21, 2020
The Guatemalan president reacted to the demonstrations through a message on his social networks, in which it indicated that “you have the right to demonstrate according to the law” but “we cannot allow you to vandalize with public or private property”.
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 endorsed the budget again, his vice president, Guillermo Castillo, assured at a press conference that the country is not “well” and urged Giammattei to resign altogether to “oxygenate” the Central American nation.
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