“He has engaged in a pattern of behavior that has undermined Guatemala’s justice system and brought the country to the brink of a constitutional crisis,” commented Guatemalan-born Norma Torres, California’s 35th representative. The representative was referring to Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, after he stated Guatemala will be withdrawing from a UN-backed agreement to prevent corruption within the third-world nation. He gave 24 hours for UN representatives to vacate the country, which has drawn criticism and uproar from constitutional lawyers and humanitarian activists.
The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG, has been in place for more than a decade to prevent the prevalence of corrupt government officials after occurrences of impunity for criminals. Despite the UN-established body, Ivan Velasquez, head of the CICIG, was banned from reentry into the country last August, along with many UN administrators. After months of UN and Guatemalan disagreement, the country’s highest court allowed for the entry of 11 CICIG officials whose visas were revoked on December 21st. On Saturday, however, Colombian CICIG investigator Yilen Osorio was arrested by the Guatemalan government where he was held for 24 hours, in direct violation of the December agreement. Furthermore, the those whose visas were revoked where the primary corruption investigators of Morales himself, his brother, and son.
“There is clearly a conflict of interests in the decisions of Morales,” commented Oswaldo Samayoa, a Guatemalan constitutional lawyer.
During his campaign for election in 2015, one of Morales’s focal points was that he was “not corrupt, or a thief”. However, his long string of corruption accusations would say otherwise. Morales claims that , “The CICIG has put at risk the sovereignty of the people of Guatemala,” and that the UN is not actively seeking solutions to the problems that have been arising. During a news conference in Guatemala City, he informed reporters he ordered an investigation regarding the alleged illegal actions of the CICIG.
Samayoa told reporters, ”it is a form of revenge disguised in the discourse of sovereignty.”