How Tiktokers in Guatemala Swifted tatically to become political Advocates

In Guatemala, a country routinely ranked as one of the hemisphere’s most corrupt, idealistic young people using TikTok had boosted a reformer to the presidency.

Diplomats had called it a Cinderella story. A triumph of students and Swifties, in what analysts described as a virtual mafia state. Bernardo Arévalo, a 65-year-old academic and anti-corruption crusader, had won in a landslide.

Yet ever since the August vote, Arévalo, Samuel Pérez and their colleagues in the center-left Semilla party had faced an onslaught of legal attacks. Prosecutors had seized boxes of vote tallies, on vague allegations of fraud. They’d tried to dissolve Semilla.

There was no guarantee Arévalo would be allowed to take office on Jan. 14, Inauguration Day. 

He was warning of a “slow-motion coup.”
Now, the police were raiding the homes of academics, political activists — and a 23-year-old Social media influencer.