Guatemalan President Otto Perez Resigns

President Otto Perez of Guatemala was arrested on Thursday after he resigned from his post. It remains to be seen if he will be charged with corruption that caused a political crisis in the country days before the next presidential election.

The resignation of Perez was approved by Congress during an emergency session. The remaining term of Perez will be taken over by former vice president Alejandro Maldonado. Protestors demanded the resignation of Perez due to allegations of his involvement in a customs scam.

The resignation of the president was met with celebrations at the plaza of the Guatemalan capital ahead of the congressional and presidential elections on Sunday. Perez said he will respect due process and intend to deal with the issue following a court hearing. He added it was “completely inconsistent.”

The 64-year-old Otto Perez denied all the charges. The court hearing of the former president will continue on Friday. Perez said in his resignation letter that he will deal with all the charges “with a clear conscience.” He was allegedly involved in a customs racket called “La Linea” or “The Line,” which refers to a telephone hotline importers use in avoiding the payment of customs duties.

Lawyer Juan Carlos Carrera said the “most corrupt president” in Guatemala’s history is finally gone, as he waved the flag of Guatemala from his car. He added that it was a citizens’ revolution since the country was divided for a number of years due to injustice.

Perez sat in the courtroom while listening to phone recordings that supposedly implicated him in the scam played by prosecutors. The former president will be charged with taking bribes, customs fraud and illicit association, prosecutors said.

President Otto Perez Resigns - image credit: theguardian.com

The decision of Otto Perez to resign will be respected by the White House and it will be ready to work with the new president of the country. Josh Earnest, White House spokesman, said they commend the Guatemalan people and its institutions in the way the crisis was handled, and the United States will continue to support the constitutional and democratic institutions of Guatemala.

Otto Perez became the president of Guatemala in 2011 after he promised to fight corruption and crime. The constitution of Guatemala prevents him from seeking re-election in the upcoming presidential election. While he stood firm against calls for his resignation, he was stripped of immunity from prosecution by lawmakers and a detention order was issued against him on Wednesday.

The former president will also become the subject of a money laundering investigation, which may result to the freezing of the assets of Perez, according to Attorney General Thelma Albania. The conservative government of Perez faced corruption allegations for much of the year, and a number of cabinet members were removed from their posts by the former president in May.

Former Vice President Roxana Baldetti also resigned after being linked to the scandal. While she denied the charges, she was also arrested.

Over twenty officials were arrested due to the scam. However, the amount of money involved in the scandal remains uncertain. Anti-corruption body CICIG and prosecutors moved against the former president after investigating for a number of months along with findings from nearly 6,000 emails, 89,000 phone taps and 17 raids.

The Lider party was also subjected to anti-corruption investigations. The election candidate of the center-right opposition party, Manual Baldizon, was a front-runner in the polls. Comic actor and independent presidential Jimmy Morales surged ahead of Baldizon in a recently-published poll.

If none of the candidates can get over fifty percent of Sunday’s vote, the top two candidates will go through a second round on October 25. The next president is expected to take office in January when the term of former president Otto Perez is supposed to end.

Posted by James Fried on Friday September 04 2015, 9:46 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0