- Title: Anti-graft group's exit to test mettle of new Guatemala leader
- Date: 13th August 2019
- Summary: GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA (FILE) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** FORMER PRESIDENT OTTO PEREZ SURROUNDED BY MEDIA AS HE HEADS TO COURTROOM FOR HEARING IN CORRUPTION CASE VARIOUS OF PEREZ IN COURT MEDIA IN COURT PEREZ IN COURT VARIOUS OF GUATEMALANS ON STREET TO PROTEST CORRUPTION VARIOUS OF CICIG COMMISSIONER IVAN VELASQUEZ DURING REUTERS INTERVIEW (NOT A SOUNDBITE) VARIOUS OF PROTESTS AGAINST CORRUPTION GENERAL VIEW OF PROTESTERS OUTSIDE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE
- Embargoed: 27th August 2019 03:45
- Keywords: CICIG United Nations corruption Guatemala Alejandro Giammattei Guatemala City
- Location: GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA
- City: GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA
- Country: Guatemala
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA002AS1WNK7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Guatemala's next leader, Alejandro Giammattei, has vowed to take on a new tack to fighting corruption in the country and without the help of the United Nation's anti-corruption body for the country.
Conservative Giammattei will not be extending the mandate of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a U.N. anti-corruption body that has become the bane of many public officials in Guatemala.
With the aid of prosecutors, the CICIG brought down the last president Otto Perez and then almost toppled his successor - who reacted by ordering the commission to leave the country.
Both Giammattei and his presidential rival had at times been on the wrong end of investigations by the CICIG - as had outgoing leader Jimmy Morales, who accused it of abusing its power in Guatemala before terminating its mandate, effective Sept. 3.
In an interview with Reuters on Sunday (August 11) before election results came in, Giammattei said the CICIG's future was out of his hands, and that he had already assembled a national commission to deal with corruption.
Giammattei said the key lay in removing public sector officials' scope to act without proper oversight. To do that, government business must be made transparent, by putting its transactions online, the veteran bureaucrat said.
Morales, a former TV star who was elected in 2015 vowing to continue the CICIG's crusade, himself became the subject of a probe by the commission, which alleged his campaign had committed financial irregularities.
By then, dozens of politicians and public officials had been targeted by the CICIG. Unlike Perez, Morales survived a congressional vote to strip him of his presidential immunity, and he labeled the CICIG a "threat to peace" in Guatemala.
(Production: Alberto Fajardo, Milton Castillo) - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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