GUATEMALA-CORRUPTION Guatemala arrests former VP Baldetti amid widening corruption scandal

Record ID: 143106

  • Title: GUATEMALA-CORRUPTION Guatemala arrests former VP Baldetti amid widening corruption scandal
  • Date: 22nd August 2015
  • Summary: CAMPAIGN BANNERS FOR BALDETTI AND PEREZ
  • Embargoed: 6th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Guatemala
  • Country: Guatemala
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3U1PES39OKLXFJAMROVC9IT8K
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Prosecutors sought to impeach Guatemalan President Otto Perez on Friday (August 21) over a corruption scandal that led to the arrest of his former vice president, deepening a government crisis ahead of presidential elections next month.
    Perez's conservative administration has spent the past few months mired in public protests and scandals over corruption allegations against senior officials, several of whom the retired general fired during a cabinet purge in May.
    Earlier on Friday (August 21), former vice president Roxana Baldetti was arrested while she was receiving treatment at a hospital. She has denied any wrongdoing.
    In the capital, citizens protested outside the medical centre in Guatemala City where Baldetti was being treated.
    "I feel happy but I'm not satisfied. I stress that we want to see her (Baldetti) in jail one day, her and Otto Perez, they're a bunch of thieves," said protester Doriam Alegria.
    Baldetti stepped down in May under pressure over reports that she was involved in the illegal payment of fees to avoid customs duties. Her chief aide, who is also implicated in the scandal, disappeared after joining her on a trip to South Korea in April.
    The investigations into graft in the Central American country have been led by a U.N.-backed anti-corruption body known as the CICIG, which has pushed for Perez's impeachment.
    "There is, at a level higher than (Baldetti's former top aide) Juan Carlos Monzon, the participation of - it needs to be said that unfortunately in the assessment that we carried out that there is participation by the president of the republic and Ingrid Roxana Baldetti," said CICIG head, Ivan Velazquez.
    Prosecutor Thelma Aldana said at a press conference that it was "highly probable" that recordings of telephone conversations of people involved in the customs corruption racket had referred to Perez.
    "The documentation seized in the raids together with the available telephone interception leads (us) to consider as probable that the president of the republic had participated in a commission with the same punishable conduct by those who have been accused of being part of the criminal organisation La Linea," she said.
    Perez, whose Patriot Party is way behind in polls before a first round of voting on September 6, was at an event outside the capital and told reporters Baldetti's has put herself at the disposition of the court to answer her charges.
    "We are facing this head on. We're going to keep facing this head on. We need to know what the situation is and, at that moment, we will make a statement. As you have seen before she has made herself available to the courts which is why she resigned and now she needs to respond before the courts," said the president.
    Last week, Perez narrowly avoided losing his presidential immunity from prosecution when not enough members of Congress voted to revoke it so he could face investigation over the scandals.
    If the Supreme Court approves prosecutors' impeachment request, Congress would still have to give its consent.
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