Hackers affiliated with the activist group Anonymous orchestrated a cyberattack on multiple Guatemalan government websites, described by authorities as a national security incident. The hackers targeted these sites in support of Indigenous-led demonstrations that have been demanding the resignation of the country’s Attorney General, Consuelo Porras.
Protesters accuse Porras of undermining the democratic election of President-elect Bernardo Arévalo. The cyberattack involved distributed denial-of-service attacks that flooded the websites with automated traffic, causing some of them to crash temporarily, including those of Guatemala’s judicial branch, Department of Agriculture, and the General Secretary of the president.
Furthermore, these attacks come after almost two weeks of protests and road closures where thousands of Indigenous demonstrators demanded the resignation of key officials, including Attorney General Porras, prosecutors Rafael Curruchiche and Cinthia Monterroso, and Judge Fredy Orellana. They accuse these officials of endangering the country’s democracy by challenging Arévalo’s victory in the August runoff election, as well as his left-wing Seed Movement party and electoral authorities.
The hackers, using the social media website X, announced their operation to disrupt the Guatemalan government under the handle @AnonGTReloaded. They targeted government websites to support the people who have been protesting against corruption and impunity.
Guatemalan authorities have labeled this cyberattack a matter of “national security” and are responding to the situation. In parallel events on the same day, former official Miguel Martínez, a personal friend of the current President Alejandro Giammattei, was surrounded by protesters as security officers escorted him from a Mass in Antigua, Guatemala. The protesters appeared to accuse Martínez of corruption, although he is not currently known to be under investigation by the prosecutor’s office.
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