U.S. condemns the removal of Guatemala’s anti-corruption prosecutor

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, condemned on Sunday the dismissal of the anti-corruption prosecutor of Guatemala, Juan Francisco Sandoval, a measure that, in his opinion, strengthens “impunity” in the Central American country.

In a tweet, the U.S. foreign minister expressed his support for Sandoval, the main bastion of the anti-corruption fight in Guatemala during the last three years, removed from his post on Friday by the head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Consuelo Porras.

“We stand with the people of Guatemala and with prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval, whom I recognized this year with an Anti-Corruption Champion award,” Blinken wrote.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Guatemala

“His removal undermines the rule of law and strengthens the forces that breed impunity. Guatemalans deserve better,” he added in the brief message.

Sandoval, 38, was a key player in the anti-corruption fight in Guatemala that had its great boom between 2014 and 2019 by the hand of former Attorney General (2014-2018) Thelma Aldana and also the director of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), the Colombian lawyer Iván Velásquez.

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

Porras alleged on Friday that she was dismissing Sandoval for alleged “abuses and frequent outrages” to the institutionality and denounced that she herself was a victim of alleged “harassment”.

For his part, Sandoval explained on Friday that since 2019, when Porras took office appointed by former President Jimmy Morales (2016-2020), the power of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI), under his charge, was diminishing, mainly by getting involved in investigations against the current government.

According to the lawyer, an investigation in November 2020 linked to the former Minister of Communications during the Morales administration, José Luis Benito, currently a fugitive, “made certain power groups “too uncomfortable”.

The investigation linked to the discovery of US$17 million in cash in residence led Sandoval to investigate Giorgio Bruni, former private secretary of the current Guatemalan president, Alejandro Giammattei.

Sandoval left Guatemala on Saturday for exile via El Salvador without disclosing his final destination.

His dismissal prompted a protest of some 500 Guatemalans who demonstrated this Saturday in the center of the country’s capital, with slogans directed against Porras and Giammattei.