The Guatemalan president’s ploy to deceive Donald Trump

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

Taiwan Posturing Deflects from Defiant Holdovers

During Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit on February 4, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo agreed to accept deportees from the United States. Arévalo would have accepted any Donald Trump administration condition that did not challenge his presidency. Arévalo got there on account of the Joe Biden regime’s fraudulent imposition.

Trump would not knowingly continue the Biden policy. However, Trump’s aversion to foreign intervention combined with the State Department’s (DOS) permanent bureaucracy betrayal has led to mistakenly leaving Biden’s treachery in place—although that could soon change.

Arévalo’s June 5 visit to Taiwan was likely a ruse to show Rubio and Trump that he would work with Taiwan and shun the People’s Republic of China. In Taiwan, Arévalo acted in contrast to everything he has done as president and president-elect.

Arévalo said in his remarks in Taipei that the bilateral agreements with Taiwan he would sign that day “will help advance bilateral investment.” This is from the candidate whose party’s website referred to the “odious inequalities generated by uncontrolled capitalism.”

Arévalo emphasized “that Guatemala highly values and cherishes Taiwan.” Guatemala has indeed had a historically strong relationship with Taiwan. However, there have been indications that Arévalo is already working with China. Regardless, he would turn on Taiwan in a moment, in keeping with his and his party’s ideology, as he did regarding Guatemala’s 77-year-ally Israel.

Guatemala’s history with Israel began in 1947. Jorge Garcia Granados, Guatemala’s ambassador to the United Nations, was a key member of the Special Committee on Palestine that presented the resolution that led to Israeli statehood. The ambassador cast the first vote for the creation of the state of Israel. There are many streets named after him in Israel.

Arévalo’s father, Juan José Arévalo, was president when Garcia Granados was instrumental in helping create the state of Israel. Juan José later became ambassador to Israel. Bernardo lived there for over a decade, including serving in the Guatemalan mission.

Israel helped Guatemala defend itself from the Fidel Castro-supported guerrillas by supplying military equipment after Jimmy Carter stopped US aid to Guatemala. The guerrillas would likely have overthrown the government without Israel’s help. However, Arévalo is aligned with the guerrilla successors who, with DOS backing, are still intent on imposing their totalitarian ideology.

Arévalo’s ambassador voted in 2024 for a resolution pushing the UN Security Council to reconsider admitting a Palestinian state as a new member. Guatemala also abstained on a resolution demanding withdrawal from “occupied Palestinian Territory.” This contrasts with Guatemala’s history with Israel. That includes being the second country after the United States in 2017 to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

As president-elect, Arévalo was a special guest of the ninth Puebla Group meeting in Mexico in 2023. As former Venezuelan Congressman Julio Borges has noted, the Puebla Group became “aligned with the interests of the continent’s dictators.” It is anti-US and pro-China. Among the Puebla Group’s members are Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, China’s client state in the Western Hemisphere. The group explicitly backed Arévalo.

To ratify the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties in 1997, Guatemala needed an exception to Article 27 that specifies the Convention takes preference over signatories’ laws. Guatemala’s constitution gives it preference over international agreements. Arévalo notified the United Nations in April that Guatemala renounced the exception, which would put international agreements above the constitution. This would permit confiscation of private property as part of ancestral heritage, as well as abortion and gender ideology.

Guatemalan Attorney General Consuelo Porras, despite DOS and Arévalo crimes against her, investigated and proved the electoral fraud that made Arévalo president. If Guatemala’s law were properly applied, Arévalo would be removed as president. DOS has intimidated magistrates, congressmen, and the business sector to illegally keep Arévalo in office. This continues under the Trump administration.

If Arévalo is president in 2026, he will be able to appoint a new attorney general and new electoral and high-court magistrates. With that power, Arévalo will become a dictator firmly in the China-Venezuela camp and an overt US adversary.

This goes way beyond Guatemala’s fate. It goes to the core issue of the Trump presidency: does the deep state or do the people govern the United States?

The way to avoid Arévalo’s treachery and promote rule by the people in the United States would be to expose and punish DOS traitors, including those who fraudulently made Arévalo president. Other countries would come forward with their stories of illegal, anti-American intervention. This would create public support for wholesale changes to the federal bureaucracy so that it ceases being a de facto fourth branch of government serving beltway insiders.