Guatemala Lawyer Normal’s workplace needs to arrest the Colombian Minister of Protection

Guatemala Lawyer Normal’s workplace seeks the arrest of its former head together with Iván Velásquez Gómez, the present minister of Protection of Colombia. The Particular Prosecutor in opposition to Impunity accuses the minister of being linked to the Odebrecht corruption scandal.

Guatemala Lawyer Normal’s workplace accused January 16, Iván Velásquez Gómez, the present minister of Protection of Colombia of conspiration and seeks his arrest, inflicting a diplomatic riff between the 2 nations.

Requested concerning the scenario with Guatemala after touchdown in Davos for the World Financial Discussion board, Colombian President Gustavo Petro stated on Tuesday that Colombia “just isn’t going to permit [Mr Velasquez] to be attacked for what he has completed and be persecuted for his combat in opposition to impunity or be cornered by those that train impunity.” He mentioned he would reject any arrest warrant issued by Guatemala for his minister and added that “if Guatemala insists on placing good males in jail, we now have nothing to do with that nation.”

For Mr Petro, the assaults in opposition to the Colombian minister come from a collection of modifications that he initiated when he was in Guatemala.

Rafael Curruchiche, the pinnacle of the Workplace of the Particular Prosecutor in opposition to Impunity, introduced that the workplace approves the arrest of the minister for obstruction of justice, conspiration and abuse of energy. He added they may take authorized motion to carry Mr Velásquez accountable for “his unlawful and abusive acts.”

He connects Mr Velásquez to a contract signed by Guatemala in 2017 with Odebrecht, the Brazilian development firm on the core of a large corruption scandal throughout Latin America. Businessman Marcelo Bahía Odebrecht admitted in a U.S. Justice Division plea settlement he paid 800 million {dollars} in bribes to high-ranking officers in a dozen nations in Latin America and Africa in change for profitable public works contracts.

Throughout that point, Mr Velásquez was the commissioner accountable for the Worldwide Fee in opposition to Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) between 2013 and 2017.

The CICIG was a global physique created in 2006 in settlement with the United Nations with a purpose to examine and prosecute critical crimes and corruption in Guatemala. However the former Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales in 2019 unilaterally determined to terminate CICIG’s mandate, alleging it put the safety of the nation and the sovereignty of the nation in danger.

He declared Mr Velásquez persona non grata in Guatemala and compelled him to depart the nation. CICIG, together with the previous lawyer common and head of the general public prosecution’s workplace Thelma Aldana, had begun an investigation in opposition to Mr Morales for illicit enrichment. Guatemala has additionally introduced looking for the arrest of Ms Aldana.

In a video posted on Twitter by the lawyer common’s workplace, a collection of emails between legal professionals who mentioned the contract confirmed Mr Velásquez was conscious of the negotiations and subsequently authorised the signature of the “anomalous” contract. For Mr Curruchiche, this proves he “had full data of the darkish and corrupt negotiations that had been being carried out with the corporate Odebrecht.”

Mr Curruchiche is the pinnacle of the Workplace of the Particular Prosecutor in opposition to Impunity (FECI), a physique liable for investigating corruption. It previously belonged to the CICIG however has been transferred to the lawyer common’s perimeters for the reason that dissolution.

He took the place in August 2021 after the lawyer common Maria Consuelo Porras, who succeeded Thelma Aldana in 2018, dismissed Juan Francisco Sandoval. Mr Sandoval is a lawyer adorned by the USA for his work in opposition to corruption now in exile, whereas Consuelo Porras was reappointed lawyer common in Could 2022 by the present president of Guatemala Alejandro Giammattei, a transfer perceived negatively by the USA and the European Union.

For Human Rights Watch, Ms Porras weakened the FECI: “Progress on the circumstances has come to a standstill” in comparison with the “greater than 120 corruption schemes in all three branches of presidency” uncovered by the lawyer common’s workplace from 2007 to 2019. America imposed sanctions on Ms Porras for hindering corruption investigations.

In an interview with Plaza Pública in March 2022, Rafael Curruchiche answered critics telling he was a political operator of mafias and the enterprise elite. He responded he “was not keen on what folks, establishments, governments suppose.” He added his mission was to “rescue FECI from all of the accusations which were made [in the past] to convey it again to the sector of objectivity, impartiality and legality.”

The Colombian minister of Protection released an official statement on Monday night time saying “he has not been notified of any requirement by the Guatemalan authorities,” and warranted he was “assured that the work carried out within the Central American nation was completed with whole transparency and throughout the authorized framework that protected the operation of the Worldwide Fee in opposition to Impunity in Guatemala.”

The FECI introduced two different arrest warrants in opposition to the lawyer who represented Oderbrecht and the previous secretary common of the general public prosecution’s workplace.

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