Guatemalan lawyer challenges Jerusalem embassy move

CAIRO – 10 January 2018: Guatemalan lawyer Marco Vinicia Mejia lodged a complaint with the Constitutional Court on Monday, arguing that his country’s decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem violates international law.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has said on December 24 that he had given instructions to move the Central American country's embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Mejia challenged that decision under the argument that such a change in policy should have been brought to a referendum.

Morales mocked government standards announcing moving the embassy on his Facebook page, instead of leaving it to the Foreign Ministry to announce the decision through official channels, according to Mejia.

In a unilateral decision on December 6, U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by announcing the relocation of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Guatemala and Honduras were the only nations in the Americas to back the decision in a UN General Assembly vote on December 21.