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Eugene

(61,964 posts)
Fri Jun 23, 2017, 11:58 AM Jun 2017

Guatemala president under pressure over lobbying firm linked to Mike Pence

Source: The Guardian

Guatemala president under pressure over lobbying firm linked to Mike Pence

• Jimmy Morales urged to reveal role in contracts signed with Indiana firm
• Barnes & Thornburg hired to improve relations between Guatemala and US


Nina Lakhani in Guatemala City
Friday 23 June 2017 11.00 BST

Guatemala’s president Jimmy Morales is under growing political pressure over two contracts with an Indiana lobbying firm closely linked to the US vice-president Mike Pence.

Opposition politicians have called on Morales to reveal his role in the $80,000-a-month contracts signed with Barnes & Thornburg LLP, which appear to have been designed to sideline the state department and the Guatemalan foreign affairs ministry.

Barnes & Thornburg – which has extensive ties with the Republican party – was hired to improve relations between the governments of Guatemala and the US, but it remains unclear who funded the contract, which was signed by politicians without the authority to intervene in foreign affairs.

On Thursday, the US ambassador to Guatemala was drawn into the controversy after he was caught on tape describing the four lawmakers who signed the contracts as “idiots”.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/23/guatemala-president-jimmy-morales-lobbying
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Guatemala president under pressure over lobbying firm linked to Mike Pence (Original Post) Eugene Jun 2017 OP
Guatemalans knew Morales was a clown before he became the President, Judi Lynn Jun 2017 #1

Judi Lynn

(160,644 posts)
1. Guatemalans knew Morales was a clown before he became the President,
Fri Jun 23, 2017, 06:35 PM
Jun 2017

but did they realize he is a total ass-clown?

From the end of the article above:


"Morales came to power in 2015 after the then-president and vice president were charged with operating a criminal network which stole millions of dollars of public money.

Morales, who had no political experience, promised to clean up politics under the slogan: “Not corrupt, not a thief.”

Asked about corruption charges against both his brother and son during a recent television interview, Morales claimed some corruption was “normal.”






Jimmy Morales, in his earlier career, before he decided to go into politics.



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