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In 2015, Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina was forced to resign before being found guilty of fraud and criminal conspiracy. His fall was a hope in the fight against impunity in a country ravaged by 36 years of civil war. But in 2018, the commission that investigated Pérez was dissolved by the new president, Jimmy Morales, whom he was also investigating. Since then, justice has been persecuted by the Government. France 24 journalists on the ground have the story.
On December 7, 2022, a Guatemalan court sentenced Pérez Molina, who had been president between 2012 and 2015, to 16 years in prison for the customs fraud scandal that had led to his resignation.
Pérez, a retired general, was declared “criminally responsible” for illicit association and complicity in customs fraud. He was sentenced to eight years in prison for each offense, a total of 16 years – with no possibility of early release – plus a $1 million fine.
In September 2018, large protests rocked the country, sparked by then-President Jimmy Morales’ decision to let the mandate of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) expire in September 2019. This UN-backed anti-corruption mission had been investigating how Morales had financed his campaign for the 2015 presidential election. During that campaign, Morales had vowed to fight corruption and expand CICIG’s mandate.
Current President Alejandro Giammattei, who succeeded Morales in January 2020, also stated that he wanted to fight the corruption that plagues the country. But it was an empty promise: his tenure has been characterized by the repression of magistrates and journalists who denounce corruption. Guatemala will know the name of his successor on August 20: a former first lady, Sandra Torres, will face Bernardo Arévalo, the son of a former president, in the presidential runoff.
