Guatemalan ex-president, vice president jailed 16 years for corruption

Former Guatemala President Otto Perez and his vice president, Roxana Baldetti, have been sentenced to 16 years in prison each for corruption.

According to Reuters, a Guatemalan court on Wednesday sentenced the duo in a graft case years after corruption revelations forced the two out of office early and into prison.

Messrs Perez and Baldetti were found guilty of illicit association and customs fraud, but were acquitted on a charge of illicit enrichment.
Mr Perez, who was president of Guatemala from 2012 to 2015, has spent the last seven years in prison awaiting a verdict in the case.

Mr Baldetti on the other hand was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison in 2018 in a separate fraud case.

Mr Perez had promised to crack down on crime on assuming office but was forced to resign with just four months left in his term amid protests over corruption scandals.

“All that’s left is to appeal,” Reuters quoted him as telling reporters during a break in the trial, adding he felt “cheated” because the conviction was made “without a shred of proof.”

The two were accused of leading a customs fraud network that stole about $3.5 million in state funds during their administration.

They were accused of leading a scheme in which importers paid bribes to avoid paying customs duties. More than two dozen others have been charged in the case.

While Mr Perez was ordered to pay 8.7 million quetzales ($1.10 million), Mr Baldetti was fined 8.4 million quetzales ($1.06 million).

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The case, known as “La Linea,” was originally investigated under the now-defunct International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), backed by the United Nations.

Guatemala expelled the head of the CICIG, Colombian Ivan Velasquez, in 2018 after his repeated attempts to investigate then-President Jimmy Morales and after jailing dozens of politicians and businessmen.

The next year, Mr Morales let the mandate authorizing the CICIG’s operations expire, shutting the commission.

In 2021, Guatemalan investigators began to target judges, prosecutors and journalists for having collaborated with the CICIG, forcing many into exile.

Since then, several of those implicated in corruption cases investigated by the CICIG have been freed and the CICIG’s findings have been annulled.