Authorities arrest another former mayor of Antigua, Guatemala

Another former mayor of Antigua, Guatemala is arrested.

Edgar Francisco Ruiz Paredes, who was mayor until his term ended Jan. 14, and the other suspects were detained on suspicion of "presumed acts of corruption," illicit association, extortion and embezzlement, the prosecutors' office said.

Amanda Santizo, Ruiz Paredes' lawyer, argued that her client had been detained illegally and without due process. She had not yet seen the case file and did not comment on the accusations.

The prosecutors' office alleged that city officials including the ex-mayor conspired to favor the awarding of contracts to family and friends of another former mayor, who has been in jail for over a year.

They also alleged that Ruiz Paredes allowed municipal funds to be embezzled by modifying security-camera contracts in Antigua to benefit businesses that had paid commissions.

It's a shame. Antigua still has a lot of charm but its elected officials and other pressures have really caused the city to lose a bit of its charm. See my post on Antigua tries to fight off "Guatemala problems" from November 2013.

Expect to hear more arrests of Guatemalan mayors and local officials. CICIG just announced that they will be paying particular attention to them this year. I can't complain about what CICIG has done since then but I thought that they should step up efforts to investigate local officials back in November 2011. I'd say the last time that CICIG announced that it was going to focus on a particular issue was about two years ago when they chose campaign finance. That led to a pretty explosive report last year. I'm interested to see where this new focus goes.