The progress that Guatemala so deserves
For the last fifteen-plus years, an informal network of transnational entities has worked to transform Guatemala's corrupt political system. Their efforts took another step forward on Tuesday with Congress's decision to strip President Otto Perez Molina of his protection from prosecution. The vote was unanimous (depending upon how you want to count the cowards who failed to attend the vote) and comes just days before national elections.
No doubt, it's a momentous day. The Office of the Public Prosecutor, the International Commission Against Impunity In Guatemala, the US Government, and millions of Guatemalans have informally worked together to investigate the president and his closest confidants, including former Vice Preisdent Roxana Baldetti. They have so far succeeded in moving the process forward even though it is widely agreed that the country's courts and congress are nearly as corrupt as the executive branch.
As a sitting president with a sordid past and present, President Perez losing his immunity is indeed a precedent setting event. He might become the third Guatemalan president to be brought before the courts in recent times. Former President Alfonso Portillo was found not guilty of embezzlement in a Guatemalan court in 2011. He was subsequently extradited to and convicted in the United States on money laundering charges in 2014. Efrain Rios Montt was brought up on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity following the loss of his immunity privileges in 2011. He was found guilty in a Guatemalan court of law in 2103 before the Constitutional Court reversed the decision days later.
The outcomes of these the trials were not what the prosecutors had hoped. Even though both Portillo and Rios Montt were able to avoid punishment for their crimes, the processes uncovered the level of corruption in Guatemala. Perhaps not as much as some people wanted, the judicial processes also strengthened the country's criminal justice system.
The continued investigation into the president and the prosecution of he and his accomplices will, hopefully, continue the progress that Guatemala so deserves.
No doubt, it's a momentous day. The Office of the Public Prosecutor, the International Commission Against Impunity In Guatemala, the US Government, and millions of Guatemalans have informally worked together to investigate the president and his closest confidants, including former Vice Preisdent Roxana Baldetti. They have so far succeeded in moving the process forward even though it is widely agreed that the country's courts and congress are nearly as corrupt as the executive branch.
As a sitting president with a sordid past and present, President Perez losing his immunity is indeed a precedent setting event. He might become the third Guatemalan president to be brought before the courts in recent times. Former President Alfonso Portillo was found not guilty of embezzlement in a Guatemalan court in 2011. He was subsequently extradited to and convicted in the United States on money laundering charges in 2014. Efrain Rios Montt was brought up on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity following the loss of his immunity privileges in 2011. He was found guilty in a Guatemalan court of law in 2103 before the Constitutional Court reversed the decision days later.
The outcomes of these the trials were not what the prosecutors had hoped. Even though both Portillo and Rios Montt were able to avoid punishment for their crimes, the processes uncovered the level of corruption in Guatemala. Perhaps not as much as some people wanted, the judicial processes also strengthened the country's criminal justice system.
The continued investigation into the president and the prosecution of he and his accomplices will, hopefully, continue the progress that Guatemala so deserves.
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