A crowd celebrating an annual Christmas festival in Guatemala City, Guatemala, on Sunday cheered on an effigy of President Donald Trump being burned alongside the devil, as part of a traditional holiday celebration.
“It’s to represent the triumph of good over evil and all bad things and to let go of bad things,” Aldahgir Gonzalez, participant at “La Quema del Diablo” (“Burning of the Devil”), told Reuters.
The centuries-old tradition celebrated in Guatemala every year on Dec. 7 marks the beginning of the Christmas season, where participants cleanse themselves of evil.
A member of the organizing committee told Global News, “There is always a character who attracts all the attention and comments,” and this year it was Trump, whom he called “the little tyrant.”
“This year it happened to a figure already plagued with so much controversy, not only in this country but around the world,” the organizer said, adding that Trump “has done a lot to harm our Latin people and especially our Guatemalan brothers.”
The video shared by Reuters depicts a sculpture of the devil, set on fire and holding a head which closely resembles the likeness of the U.S president in his hand.
The burning effigy comes amid Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown that stoked fears in communities across the nation, heavily impacting a vast group of people facing deportation, including Guatemalans living in the U.S.
In August, the administration attempted to deport dozens of unaccompanied minors to Guatemala, but was blocked by a district court judge.
One child on board the plane said they “woke up very scared,” according to a court filing contesting the attempt.
The child continued, “I felt like I lost my breath for a second because they had never woken us up in the middle of the night before.”
