A(nother) time of reckoning in Guatemala

In Guatemala, a five-member commission of legislators unanimously voted to recommend President Jimmy Morales' immunity from prosecution be removed so that he would have to answer for his political party's campaign finance irregularities from the 2015 election. However, yesterday, the full Guatemalan Congress voted against such a move.

Only 25 of 158 legislators supported stripping Morales of his immunity. According to the AP's reporting,

since the measure failed to meet a threshold of 105 votes either for or against needed to settle the matter for good, it now goes into a kind of dormant state and can be reconsidered in another session of congress.

Obviously, the response to yesterday's vote was split.

“Democracy isn’t built by changing the president every two years,” said Congressman Raul Romero, head of the Fuerza party, referring to the corruption cases that led to the 2015 resignation of Morales’ predecessor, Otto Perez Molina.

... 

“Members of Congress are making a pact of corrupt officials now that they are afraid of being investigated themselves for illegal electoral financing,” said Alvaro Montenegro, head of the anti-corruption organization Justicia Ya.

President Jimmy Morales celebrated the vote.

Morales, who has denied any wrongdoing, issued a statement late on Monday praising the vote as a sign of the country’s unity and “democratic maturity” of its institutions.

“I call for an end to the political and ideological confrontations and together we’ll continue to build the Guatemala we all desire,” the statement said.

CICIG Commissioner Ivan Velasquez has no intention of resigning, but we seem to be waiting for the next effort by powerful criminal forces to undermine CICIG and its Commissioner's work. A(nother) time of reckoning in Guatemala