In mid-January, Phil Gordon visited Guatemala at hand ship a letter from Kamala Harris to a person who very probably owed his presidency to U.S. diplomatic intervention.
Bernardo Arévalo de León had simply been inaugurated as Guatemala’s new chief, regardless of efforts by the nation’s outgoing authorities over months to derail a democratic transition of energy. Gordon, the U.S. vp’s nationwide safety advisor, was in Guatemala to attend Arévalo’s inauguration with a delegation of different high-level Biden administration officers.
The letter congratulated him on his victory and invited him to Washington for a gathering with Harris, in line with a duplicate reviewed by Overseas Coverage. However its actual significance was spelled out between the strains. A senior administration official concerned within the discussions mentioned the letter was a “sign that the U.S. provides full-throated assist to Arévalo and Guatemala’s democratic transition of energy.”
The inauguration itself happened after midnight on Jan. 15, following a dramatic remaining effort by members of Guatemala’s outgoing authorities to halt the proceedings. Gordon and different members of the U.S. delegation had been instrumental in guaranteeing the transition of energy happened, having imposed sanctions and visa restrictions, and again channeled with different embassies to strain Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei to simply accept the election outcomes and step apart.
The democratic transition in Guatemala represents one of many clearest victories of U.S. President Joe Biden’s agenda to advertise democracy worldwide, in addition to a uncommon instance of Vice President Kamala Harris’s nationwide safety group taking part in a definite and direct position in shepherding it by way of, in line with interviews with a number of administration insiders and Central America consultants. The episode supplies attainable insights into how Harris’s foreign-policy group would work ought to she win the presidential election in November.
Whereas it went comparatively unnoticed in Washington, the place persons are largely targeted on wars in Ukraine and the Center East, the U.S. maneuver to bolster democracy in Guatemala was a coverage win—in stark distinction to a number of the administration’s endeavors in different elements of the world. The Biden administration has confronted criticism for embracing autocrats in ways in which undermined his acknowledged objectives of selling world democracy. Throughout West Africa, america has did not stem an “epidemic” of coups that dealt a heavy blow to U.S. pursuits. In Afghanistan, which america withdrew from chaotically three years in the past, democracy is extra distant than ever.
“Most likely probably the most key participant for securing this transition for Arévalo was the worldwide neighborhood and particularly america,” mentioned Marielos Chang, a Guatemalan political guide and professor on the Universidad del Valle in Guatemala.
When Biden introduced his withdrawal from the presidential race final month and endorsed Harris, one of many many questions posed concerning the vp was: What position had she performed on foreign-policy points? Many present and former U.S. nationwide safety officers say it’s onerous to discern the place Harris and her small nationwide safety group have made a mark—however Guatemala stands as an exception.
Harris grew to become the administration’s level particular person on Central America’s Northern Triangle area to deal with the foundation causes of migration, an project that later grew to become some extent of controversy on the marketing campaign path—and a supply of criticism from Republicans. Migration encounters on the U.S. southern border hit a file excessive on the finish of 2023, and border safety and migration stays a serious concern for each events on the marketing campaign path, significantly for Republicans.
“President Biden gave Vice President Harris one job—‘border czar’—and he or she failed miserably,” Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the Home Overseas Affairs Committee, mentioned final month, echoing related expenses throughout the board from Republicans that the Harris marketing campaign has sought to push again on.
All through her time as vp, Harris and her nationwide safety group labored intently with Giammattei’s authorities to attempt to deal with the foundation causes of migration from the supply, even earlier than Guatemala’s transition disaster.
Guatemala is Central America’s most populous nation and a key hub for the stream of migrants north towards the U.S. southern border.
One key initiative Harris’s group and different Nationwide Safety Council (NSC) officers labored on with Giammattei was the “secure mobility workplace” initiative, to attempt to set up workplaces within the area the place folks might apply for asylum in america from afar or study concerning the convoluted U.S. migration system earlier than ever reaching the U.S. border.
Gordon met with Giammattei for over 9 hours in one in every of his quite a few journeys to Guatemala as they hashed out these proposals, in line with a senior administration official conversant in the matter. This official and others spoke on situation of anonymity as they weren’t approved to talk on the file about inner authorities deliberations.
The Nationwide Immigration Discussion board, a nonprofit group that tracks migration points, has mentioned that “a lot stays unclear concerning the workplaces’ operational realities” however that it’s geared toward lessening the burden on immigration programs on the border and deterring folks from making an attempt to enterprise there within the first place.
Arévalo received Guatemala’s presidential election in August 2023 by a snug margin on a marketing campaign of anti-corruption reforms. Within the wake of the election, “we had been beginning to see indicators that Giammattei’s administration was in search of to dam the end result of the free and truthful elections and forestall a peaceable switch of energy,” mentioned Katie Tobin, the previous high Biden migration advisor on the NSC.
From there, Harris’s group was nicely positioned to launch the strain marketing campaign on the outgoing authorities to simply accept the election outcomes. It was additionally coordinated by the highest U.S. diplomat on the time in Guatemala, Patrick Ventrell, and different State Division and Treasury Division officers, in line with the officers conversant in the matter.
In October, the administration introduced sanctions on Guatemalan officers linked to corruption. In November, Gordon traveled once more to Guatemala to satisfy with each Giammattei and Arévalo individually to “reinforc[e] the significance of the peaceable democratic switch of energy,” in line with a White Home readout of the conferences on the time. Days after his go to, the Biden administration sanctioned one other former high Guatemalan official for his position in “ongoing efforts to undermine the democratic switch of energy.”
Then, on Dec. 11, the State Division introduced visa restrictions on practically 300 Guatemalans, together with over 100 Guatemalan members of Congress and different enterprise elites, for “ongoing anti-democratic actions” that sought to interrupt the transition of energy.
“That despatched a extremely sturdy message to all politicians, that america was not going to be simply ready to see what occurs,” Chang mentioned. Chang mentioned that Guatemalans paid shut consideration to the diplomatic marketing campaign by america, and specifically the highest U.S. diplomat there, Ventrell. Harris’s private position, Chang mentioned, wasn’t seen in Guatemala in the identical method it was again in Washington in inner authorities deliberations.
The strain seemed to be working, and Giammattei and his proxies started backing down. However there can be one final dramatic political battle, and members of Harris’s nationwide safety group would discover themselves on the heart of it.
Biden in January introduced he was sending a delegation of eight senior U.S. officers to Guatemala for Arévalo’s inauguration, led by U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth (USAID) chief Samantha Energy. The delegation additionally included Gordon and Tobin, in addition to Brian Nichols, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.
Lawmakers who opposed Arévalo threw up extra roadblocks, delaying the particular session of Congress to complete the inauguration and sparking fears of a last-minute coup. Arévalo’s supporters rallying to have fun his inauguration grew more and more restive and impatient because the hours dragged on, ultimately clashing with riot police and gathering exterior the congressional constructing.
The showdown additionally intersected with the U.S. election marketing campaign, as one in every of former President Donald Trump’s high confidants, Ric Grenell, traveled to Guatemala within the days main as much as the inauguration and threw his assist behind the efforts to derail Arévalo’s ascent to the presidency, because the Washington Put up reported. Grenell reportedly backed hard-line conservatives who sought to dam the transition and alleged that the U.S. foreign-policy institution was making an attempt to “intimidate conservatives” within the nation. Grenell, Trump’s former appearing director of nationwide intelligence and ambassador to Germany, has emerged as one of the vital influential voices within the MAGA motion advising Trump on his 2024 run.
On the day of the deliberate inauguration, Biden’s delegation went into disaster mode. “We had been on the [U.S.] ambassador’s residence throughout this, for 9 hours,” Tobin recalled. “The [USAID] administrator, Phil [Gordon], our expenses d’affaires [Ventrell] had been all making tons of calls to the outgoing authorities and incoming administration” and “coordinating with overseas delegations” in response to the eleventh-hour disaster, she mentioned.
“We labored out a unified message because the worldwide neighborhood there that we had been anticipating the Guatemalan authorities to do the precise factor and uphold democratic values,” she added. They weren’t alone. Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s president, who was additionally in Guatemala for the inauguration and has outsized political affect within the area, vowed to not go away till Arévalo was inaugurated.
In the long run, the strain from Guatemalan protesters and the worldwide neighborhood labored. Arévalo was sworn in shortly after midnight on Jan. 15. “That transition nearly didn’t occur, till it lastly did,” Tobin mentioned.
Shortly after the inauguration, Harris issued a press release “commend[ing] the folks of Guatemala for making their voices heard and this necessary transition.” Her group has maintained shut contact with Arévalo within the months since; Gordon met him alongside the sidelines of the Munich Safety Convention in Germany in February and Arévalo took Harris up on her provide for a White Home assembly, visiting Washington in March. Giammattei, in the meantime, has been barred from getting into america over U.S. allegations of “his involvement in important corruption,” in line with the State Division.
“Lots of people have essential views of america as not at all times an excellent participant relating to their actions in Latin America,” Chang mentioned, citing Guatemala amongst different circumstances. “With this particular instance, nevertheless, you’ll be able to see how america can really assist in international locations which might be battling democratic transitions.”
