Politicians and prosecutors are increasing the pressure on Guatemala’s election winner in a bid to undermine his ability to assume the presidency, prompting the US government to sound the alarm over risks to the country’s democracy.

Bernardo Arévalo, a centre-left anti-corruption outsider, won the presidential election last month on a promise to clean up Guatemalan politics. Since then, his run-off opponent failed to recognise his victory while he has faced death threats and his political party, Movimiento Semilla (Seed Movement), has been suspended among a series of other legal challenges.

“There are acts of illegal political persecution by those who refuse to accept the demand of the Guatemalan people for change and to close the chapter of corruption and impunity in the country,” Arévalo said this week.