Former Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom dies

Former Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom, who ruled from 2008 to 2012, died Monday night after suffering health problems, confirmed representatives of the party that brought him to power. He was 71 years old.

During his tenure, Colom supported the fight against corruption by a United Nations commission that later investigated him and landed him in prison.

“I deeply regret the death of former President Colom, a man of deep democratic convictions and great social sensitivity. My condolences to his family and his friends,” said Congressman Orlando Blanco, who was a member of his party, Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza.

Colom was an engineer, businessman, and politician who came to power for a social democratic party.

During his presidency, he supported the work of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a UN body that fought for 12 years — from 2007 to 2019 — crime structures and clandestine security apparatuses embedded in the state. .

The CICIG and the prosecutor’s office also prosecuted and arrested Colom for fraud and embezzlement for an alleged embezzlement of a public transportation system from which some 34.5 million dollars would have been stolen, which kept him in prison for several months. The former president denied the charges. The case is still under appeal and has not been tried due to the legal appeals filed.

In 2021, Colom was included in a list of the US State Department that indicated him for his alleged involvement in significant corruption due to fraud and embezzlement in the Transurbano case and, as a consequence, his visa to the country was revoked.

The former president was married to Sandra Torres, who will seek the presidency of the Central American country on June 25 with the same party.

“May a noble man who always carried Guatemala in his heart rest in peace. My condolences and deepest condolences to the family,” Torres wrote on Twitter.

The party, of which it was no longer a part, lamented the death of the former president on its social networks:

“The National Unity of Hope, the Executive Committee and all its affiliates regret the sensitive death of engineer Álvaro Colom Caballeros, former president of the Republic of Guatemala and founder of UNE. Our condolences to his loved ones.”

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