Guatemala’s Attorney General also removes former prosecutor Sandoval’s replacement

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Attorney General of Guatemala, Consuelo Porras, removed this Tuesday the head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI), Clara Valenzuela, who only 10 days ago had replaced Juan Francisco Sandoval, the main anti-corruption bastion of the Central American country.

Valenzuela’s removal was justified by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in a press release. It assures that the move was made to “guarantee an effective response to citizens” and “ensure continuity in the effectiveness of the work carried out”.

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Valenzuela’s short-lived position in the FECI will be occupied by the official who, since the 2019 election, had headed the Electoral Crimes Prosecutor’s Office, José Rafael Curruchiche Cucul, accused by opponents of the Government of political persecution.

On the other hand, Clara Valenzuela will return to be in charge of the Special Methods Unit of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, a position she held until the criticized dismissal of Sandoval.

In a statement on social networks, Guatemala’s ombudsman, Jordán Rodas, said that Consuelo Porras “does not tolerate independent prosecutors in their function. She prefers them submissive, which undermines the justice system and increases national and international distrust in the fight against corruption and impunity.”

Since Sandoval’s dismissal last Friday, July 23, the population has expressed its discontent, considering him a necessary ally in the fight against corruption in Guatemala, and even organized public demonstrations, including a national strike last Thursday in the interior of the country coordinated by indigenous sectors that called for the resignations of the president, Alejandro Giammattei and Porras.

Sandoval, who in February was awarded as one of the “Anti-Corruption Heroes” by the US State Department, had warned last March that the country is at risk of a “dictatorship” due to the lack of respect for judicial resolutions.

The 38-year-old prosecutor was a key player in the anti-corruption fight in Guatemala that boomed between 2014 and 2019 under the leadership of the head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the time, Thelma Aldana, and the director of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), Colombian lawyer Iván Velásquez.

The investigations led by Sandoval, Aldana, and Velásquez uncovered dozens of state corruption cases, charging more than 200 people, including ministers, officials, business people, and former presidents Otto Pérez Molina (2012-2015) and Álvaro Colom Caballeros (2008-2012).

This year, without Aldana and Velásquez, the prosecutor said he was not alone in the fight against impunity in Guatemala because he supports “society and the international community”.

However, he said he was increasingly concerned about the advance of the groups that he confronted with the CICIG. That has given way to disobeying resolutions when they are not favorable to their interests.

According to an investigation by the evening newspaper La Hora, the decision to remove Sandoval was a request from President Giammattei to the attorney general due to possible investigations by the FECI against the president.