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Guatemala president step closer to impeachment

August 26, 2015

Guatemala's Supreme Court has approved a bid to impeach the nation's president, who is facing a growing corruption scandal. Otto Perez Molina has refused to resign.

https://p.dw.com/p/1GLW4
Guatemalas Präsident Otto Perez Molina
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/E. Biba

The court unanimously approved a request by Guatemala's attorney general to investigate Perez Molina (pictured above) over his suspected involvement in a racket to siphon customs revenue from the government.

The matter will be passed to the country's congress, which will vote on whether to strip Perez Molina of his immunity as a sitting president, so he can be prosecuted and possibly removed from office.

The president has angrily dismissed involvement in the scandal, in which importers avoided paying customs duties in exchange for bribes, which investigators say were distributed to officials.

News agency AP reports that the country's former vice president, Roxana Baldetti, has been ordered to stand trial over the scandal, which forced her from office in May.

Guatemala Roxana Baldetti vor Gericht
Former Guatemalan Vice-President Roxana BaldettiImage: J. Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images

Prosecutors say she accepted $3.7 million in bribes, describing her as one of the main ringleaders in a highly-organized scam.

It is unclear how much money was involved in the fraud in total, but more than 20 people have been arrested so far.

The ongoing scandal has rocked Guatemalan politics and comes less than two weeks before elections that are due to decide Perez Molina's successor. The 64-year-old is not eligible to stand.

Since last Friday, five of the president's 13 cabinet secretaries have resigned. Perez Molina himself on Sunday dismissed the allegations against him, and said in a televised address that he would not step down.

jr/lw (AP, Reuters, AFP)