Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Anti-graft unit to shut down in Guatemala
GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales announced Friday that he is shutting down a crusading United Nations-sponsored anti-graft commission that pressed a number of high-profile corruption probes, including one pending against the president himself over purported illicit campaign financing.
Speaking in front of a host of mostly military and police leaders, Morales said he had informed the U.N. secretary-general of his decision not to renew the body’s mandate and “immediately” begin transferring its operations to Guatemalan institutions. The government later clarified in a statement that the commission will remain in the country through the end of its current two-year term, which ends Sept. 3, 2019, during the transition period.
The decision caps a long history of friction between the president and the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala.
In August 2017, Morales announced that he was expelling the commission’s chief, Ivan Velasquez, but that move was quickly blocked by Guatemala’s top court.
At the time Morales declared Velasquez a persona non grata and fired his foreign minister for refusing to carry out the order to expel him, before later backing off and saying he would obey the court’s decision.
Morales accused the commission Friday of “violating our laws, inducing people and institutions to participate in acts of corruption and impunity” and “selective criminal prosecution with an ideological bias.”
“Selective justice has been used to intimidate and terrorize the citizenry,” he charged. “Judicial independence has been violated, with the intention of manipulating justice, actions that attack the presumption of innocence and due process.”
The announcement was promptly met with criticism from human rights officials and advocates.
“We sincerely regret the great mistake that the president made public in not renewing [the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala’s] mandate,” Guatemalan human rights prosecutor Jordan Rodas said. “We are grateful for its valuable contribution in the country to the fight against corruption and impunity.”
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont and staunch commission supporter, said that in light of the announcement, the U.S. Congress would “reassess” future aid to Guatemala and its military.
“It now falls to the Guatemalan people, the judiciary and the Attorney General to ensure that this attempt to perpetuate impunity does not succeed,” Leahy said in a statement. “It is critical that [the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala] … continues to carry out its mandate.”
Morales is suspected of receiving at least $1 million in undeclared contributions during the 2015 campaign. He has denied wrongdoing.
Last week the Supreme Court allowed a request brought by the commission and Guatemalan prosecutors to strip his immunity from prosecution to go to Congress for consideration. If 105 lawmakers vote in favor, it could open him up to investigation for possible illicit campaign financing.
“I think there’s a conflict of interest, and an attempt by President Morales to try to protect his own interests in light of the ongoing investigation and probe,” said Adriana Beltran, director for citizen security at the Washington Office on Latin America, which advocates for human rights in the region.
Beltran said the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala and Velasquez have made remarkable progress in strengthening the rule of law in Guatemala “despite constant attacks and efforts to try to undermine [their] work,” and that “there’s still much more that needs to be done.” Information for this article was contributed by Peter Orsi of The Associated Press.