The Guatemalan prosecution has opened an investigation for “illegal” acts against the current Minister of Colombian Defense.
by Marie Delcas (Bogota, correspondent) and Angeline Montoya
Ivan Velasquez, accused of corruption? In Bogota, astonishment quickly gave way to indignation. The questioning of the famous Colombian lawyer by the Guatemalan justice has been brewed for four days the relations between the government of the Colombian Gustavo Petro (left) and that of the president of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei (right). Ivan Velasquez directed the International Commission against impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) from 2013 to 2019 to 2019. He is now Minister of Defense of his country.
“Ivan Velasquez has all our support, reacted from Monday January 16 in the evening Mr. Petro. We are not going to allow him to be attacked and prosecuted because he fought against crime and corruption. If Guatemala persists in imprisoning just men, we have nothing to do together. “Mr. Petro recalled Tuesday to consult his ambassador stationed in Guatemala. The Central American country immediately did the same, in the name of reciprocity.
Two days earlier, Rafael Curruchiche, head of the special prosecution against impunity (FECI) in Guatemala, had opened an investigation, accusing Ivan Velasquez and several of his former collaborators of having committed “irregular and illegal” acts During the investigation carried out by the CICIG against the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, nicknamed “the multinational of corruption”.
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The CICIG had been set up in 2006, under the aegis of the United Nations, to help the prosecution to investigate the infiltration of institutions by criminal structures. She was dismantled in 2019 by the president of the time, Jimmy Morales, after he himself had been implicated in business. Its officials and the magistrates who have worked with them are since then victims of systematic persecution. More than thirty prosecutors and anti -corruption judges have been forced to leave their country.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, and the United States government expressed their “concern” in the face of Guatemalan justice practices. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Transparency International also expressed their support without reservation to Mr. Velasquez.
The US Under-Secretary of State Brian Nichols said he was “concerned” by the actions of Rafael Curruchiche. “Such actions undermine the rule of law and confidence in the Guatemala judicial system,” wrote Mr. Nichols on Twitter. He recalled that Mr. Curruchiche has been suspected of corruption by the United States since July 2022, which withdrew his visa. The current general prosecutor of Guatemala, Consuelo Porras, is also registered on the black list of “corrupt and anti -democratic” personalities of the region.
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