What a nice guy. He seems so misunderstood.

El Pais recently conducted an interview with former Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina in which he continues to blame CICIG, Ivan Velasquez, the United States, and Thelma Aldana for his predicament.

A. ...I am here because of ambition, self-centeredness, and the opportunity of advancement by Commissioner Iván Velásquez.

Q. But you accepted him in that post.

A. I wouldn’t do that again.

Q. Even though you are attacking the commissioner, the attorney general has backed up the indictment.

A. This is something I can’t quite understand. I picked her from six candidates, and I had a good relationship with her. But something changed. The Attorney General’s Office became a tool of the CICIG and, at the same time, the United States.

Q. What interests does Washington have?

Q. But not only was Judge Velásquez against you, polls over the last months showed you had an 88% disapproval rating and scores of people poured out into the streets against your government.

A. The interest of the United States is to extend its presence to stop Nicaragua and Venezuela. But also because the Chinese and Russians are building up their own interests in the region.

A. Look, if we had wanted to, we could have organized an even larger protest, which would have ended up in confrontation. And I assure you that would have been the end of the protest rallies.

Q. But these were just citizens who were trying to peacefully express their dissatisfaction with the government.

A. The United States was behind all of this – sending messages [on social media] to rouse the people. But I didn’t want any more polarization. We emerged from an internal armed conflict that lasted 36 years. I lived through it, and I was one of the signatories of the peace treaty. I didn’t want to create a situation that would have caused more deaths just to help myself.

 What a nice guy. He seems so misunderstood.