Guatemala president shuts down UN anti-corruption commission

GUATEMALA CITY – President Jimmy Morales on Friday shut down a crusading U.N.-sponsored anti-graft commission that has pressed a number of high-profile corruption probes in the country — including one pending against him over purported illicit campaign financing.

Speaking in front of civilian leaders as military vehicles surrounded the commission's headquarters in the capital, Morales said he had informed the U.N. secretary-general of his decision to revoke the body's mandate and "immediately" begin transferring its capacities to Guatemalan institutions.

The decision caps a long history of friction between the government and the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or Cicig for its initials in Spanish.

In August 2017, Morales announced that he was expelling the commission's chief, Ivan Velasquez, but that was quickly blocked by Guatemala's top court.

At the time Morales declared Velasquez a persona non grata and fired his foreign minister for refusing to carry out the order to expel him, before later backing off and saying he would obey the court's decision.

Morales accused the commission Friday of "violating our laws, inducing people and institutions to participate in acts of corruption and impunity," and "selective criminal prosecution with an ideological bias."

"Selective justice has been used to intimidate and terrorize the citizenry," he charged. "Judicial independence has been violated, with the intention of manipulating justice, actions that attack the presumption of innocence and due process."

Morales is suspected of receiving at least $1 million in undeclared contributions during the 2015 campaign. He has denied wrongdoing.

Last week the Supreme Court allowed a request brought by Cicig and Guatemalan prosecutors to strip his immunity from prosecution to go to Congress for consideration. If 105 lawmakers vote in favor, it could open him up to investigation for possible illicit campaign financing.

Cicig spokesman Matias Ponce told The Associated Press that at least 12 military vehicles were outside the commission's facility, a deployment that Guatemalan human rights prosecutor Jordan Rodas called an "oversize and intimidating presence."

"It is an unnecessary military movement that reminds us of days past when there were coups, and now we are a democracy — nobody is above the law," Rodas said, adding that he would work to guarantee the safety of the commissioner and his team.

"We sincerely regret the great mistake that the president made public in not renewing Cicig's mandate," he continued. "We are grateful for its valuable contribution in the country to the fight against corruption and impunity."

The commission's work with Guatemalan prosecutors has led to high-profile graft probes that ensnared dozens of politicians and businesspeople and even led to the downfall of former President Otto Perez Molina and his then-vice president.

The military deployment came the same day a U.N. human rights team was expelled from the Central American nation of Nicaragua after the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights published a critical report accusing President Daniel Ortega's government of violent repression of opposition protests.

There was no immediate indication of a link between the two events.