This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit http://www.djreprints.com.
Guatemala Presses Charges Against AG Accused Of 'Coup' Attempt
By AFP - Agence France Presse
Order Reprints
Print Article
Text size
ADDS prosecutor's office reax
The government of Guatemala's President Bernardo Arevalo on Thursday filed criminal charges against the attorney general he had inherited from his predecessor, and who he accuses of leading a plot to undo his election.
Consuelo Porras, who is under US and EU sanctions, now faces charges of "breach of duties," state lawyer Julio Saavedra announced after filing the case with the Supreme Court.
He has also asked for her immunity from prosecution to be lifted.
Porras has refused Arevalo's requests to hand in her resignation after he took office on January 15.
Along with senior prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche and Judge Fredy Orellana, Porras was at the forefront of judicial efforts to stop reformist Arevalo from taking office.
All three are listed as corrupt and undemocratic by the US government.
Former lawmaker, diplomat and sociologist Arevalo pulled off a major upset when he swept from obscurity to win elections last August, firing up voters weary of graft in one of Latin America's poorest nations.
His anti-corruption crusade put him in the crosshairs of prosecutors accused of graft themselves and closely aligned with the country's entrenched political and economic ruling class.
They tried to overturn the election results and strip Arevalo, who enjoys strong support from the international community, of immunity from prosecution.
His Semilla (Seed) party also had its registration suspended on fraud allegations widely seen as trumped up.
Arevalo has repeatedly denounced a "slow-motion coup d'etat."
Saavedra said the charge against Porras is based on her absence from a meeting of Arevalo's cabinet on January 29, which he had asked her to attend.
Arevalo has no legal power to fire Porras, who was appointed in 2022 by then-president Alejandro Giammattei to serve until 2026.
Saavedra said the Supreme Court must now order the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the case against Porras.
"This will be one of several actions to be undertaken by the Executive against all those corrupt actors, those actors who are against the rule of law," said Juan Guerrero, secretary general in the presidency, who accompanied Saavedra to the court.
The prosecutor's office, which falls under Porras, said Thursday that in ditching the cabinet meeting, she had acted in accordance with the law, under which she is independent from the government.
The case against her was "spurious" and had a "possible political origin in order to obstruct justice," it said in a message sent to AFP.
