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Guatemala on knife-edge after president moves to end anti-corruption body
Country facing political meltdown after Jimmy Morales announced plan to dismantle the commission investigating him
Nina Lakhani
Fri 14 Sep 2018 09.24 EDT
Flanked by high-ranking military and police officers, Guatemala’s President Jimmy Morales declared that the country’s fight against corruption and impunity was over.
In a scene evocative of the country’s repressive military history, he claimed that the Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig) – a body established by the United Nations in 2007 to help dismantle powerful criminal networks – had in fact encouraged corruption, selectively pursued criminal cases based on ideological bias and sown “judicial terror”.
Morales presented no evidence, but declared he would not renew the commission’s mandate, which runs out next September.
Meanwhile, a convoy of US-donated military jeeps encircled the Cicig headquarters where corruption cases against Morales, his family and scores of his political patrons are being investigated.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/13/guatemala-jimmy-morales-corruption-cicig
