Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office requests that President Bernardo Arévalo’s immunity be removed – Diario La Página – 2024-08-24 17:46:02

Guatemala’s controversial Attorney General’s Office asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to remove the immunity of President Bernardo Arévalo, accusing him of having authorized “illegal” payments to construction companies. “The request was submitted” to the Court to “withdraw immunity against Mr. President” for the crimes of abuse of authority, usurpation of powers and resolutions violating the Constitution, a recourse that could later lead to the removal of his immunity, said prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche in a press conference. Yesterday the Public Ministry already requested to remove the immunity of the Secretary General of the Presidency, Juan Gerardo Guerrero.

The prosecutor Curruchiche, sanctioned by the United States and the European Union for being “corrupt” and “anti-democratic”, accused the social democratic president of having ordered the former Minister of Communications, Jazmín de la Vega, to pay million-dollar contracts to companies allegedly involved in corruption in the case known in the country as the “Micivi corruption scheme.” “We have been able to establish then that Mr. President […] “He is the main person who promotes corruption and encourages impunity in Guatemala,” Curruchiche said.

“Mr. Curruchiche’s nonsense has no place in any criminal action,” the President’s Social Communications Secretariat responded in a message sent to the media. Arévalo himself gave a press conference in which he attacked “this corrupt minority embedded in the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the justice system” and said that “it runs against the general feeling of the people, against time, and is increasingly left with less political support to protect it.”

Arévalo and the controversial Attorney General, Consuelo Porras, have been involved in a relentless war since last year, in which both risk their positions. The current case stems from a complaint filed against Arévalo on July 16 by Ricardo Méndez Ruiz, president of the far-right Foundation Against Terrorism and also sanctioned by Washington for being “corrupt.”