Since then, the administration of President Alejandro Giammattei has been accused by civil society organizations and international governments of systemically pursuing those that labored with the U.N. mission, finest recognized by its Spanish preliminary CICIG.
Some 30 judges, magistrates and prosecutors concerned within the investigation or processing of these corruption instances have been pressured to flee the nation after going through authorized motion from the present administration.
Giammattei will not be eligible for re-election in June, however his Vamos celebration will put ahead a nationwide lawmaker as its candidate. The election guarantees to be a free-for-all with some 30 events taking part. No Guatemalan celebration has ever been re-elected to the presidency for consecutive phrases.
“This suits with an electoral objective. It’s an oblique electoral providing for these sectors which can be benefitting or are going to learn from the dismantling of every part that has to do with the CICIG,” mentioned Tiziano Breda, a Latin America knowledgeable with the Italy-based Istituto Affari Internazionali. “And it assures that within the case of the continuation of this authorities the dismantling will proceed.”
Maybe the CICIG’s best achievement was the investigation and prosecution of President Otto Pérez Molina, who was pressured to resign alongside together with his Cupboard in 2015.
Along with reversing the achievements made towards corruption, Breda mentioned, the present authorities’s marketing campaign towards these related to anti-corruption efforts “tries to vary the narrative about what CICIG got here to do within the nation and what it achieved.”
Guatemala’s present anti-corruption prosecutor, Rafael Curruchiche Cacul, alleges Velásquez improperly entered right into a cooperation settlement with Brazilian building big Odebrecht whereas investigating that agency’s in depth bribery operations throughout the area. That cooperation settlement was authorized by a Guatemalan decide.
Curruchiche Cacul was sanctioned by america final 12 months for allegedly obstructing corruption investigations and pursuing as a substitute investigations towards former anti-corruption prosecutors and judges.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro defended Velásquez, saying the corrupt are actually pursuing him even years after he left Guatemala.
Gabriela Carreta, a political scientist at Rafael Landivar College, mentioned the actions of Curruchiche Cacul purpose to ship “a transparent message that by no means once more will there be investigations towards corruption, nor a seach for justice, a lot much less with international intervention.”
