The demonstration saw the merchants from a popular city market blow plastic horns as they walked to the centre of the capital.

“Here is a president who the people one day voted in, and we will never accept a few people coming with these intentions to try to remove him,” one of the march’s organisers told the crowd after being received by Morales.

The president, a former TV comedian, is facing two accusations of illegal financing in his 2015 election campaign because he did not report US$2 million (RM7.9 million) in spending by the conservative National Convergence Front party that backed him.

Prosecutors and a UN-backed anti-corruption body working in Guatemala have called for Morales’ presidential immunity to be lifted so he can be investigated.

Graft suspicions have also been levelled at the president’s son and brother.

Addressing the demonstration, Morales said: “Today they want to say things, including in court, against my family, against me. Blessed be God as a great thinker once said, truth will set us free.”

Some Guatemalan media reported that the organisers of Wednesday’s march coerced merchants to take part or to face reprisals.