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Guatemalan President Resigns Over Corruption Firestorm

04.09.2015 16:39

Guatemala's Congress was expected to convene an emergency session Thursday to swear in a new president after embattled conservative leader Otto Perez resigned in the face of a firestorm of corruption allegations.Upending the country's political landscape three days away from elections to choose his successor,

Guatemala's Congress was expected to convene an emergency session Thursday to swear in a new president after embattled conservative leader Otto Perez resigned in the face of a firestorm of corruption allegations.

Upending the country's political landscape three days away from elections to choose his successor, Perez sent his resignation to Congress Wednesday just before midnight, caving in to mounting calls to quit hours after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest.

Investigators accuse Perez of running a scheme that allowed businesses to pay bribes in exchange for illegal discounts on import duties.

He long rejected calls to resign, but was increasingly backed into a corner after Congress voted unanimously on Tuesday to strip him of his presidential immunity -- a first in Guatemalan history.

Exasperated Guatemalans fed up with corruption erupted in celebration outside the Supreme Court early Thursday on the news of Perez's resignation.

"Otto, you thief, you're going to Pavon!" they chanted, referring to one of the country's main prisons.

Thousands have taken to the streets in protest since the scandal first came to light in April, on a scale never before seen in the Central American country.

The accusations have stoked outrage in the country of 15 million people, 53.7 percent of whom live in poverty, where the scars are still fresh from a 36-year civil war that ended in 1996.



- Veep to be sworn in -



Congress met Thursday morning to officially accept Perez's resignation.

Lawmakers are then expected to convene an emergency session to swear in Vice President Alejandro Maldonado, who will hold power until an elected successor takes office on January 14.

Maldonado only assumed the vice presidency in May.

His predecessor, Roxana Baldetti, also resigned over the scandal, and is currently in jail awaiting trial on charges of taking some $3.8 million in bribes between May 2014 and April 2015.

After clinging to power through months of unprecedented protests, Perez finally bowed out hours before a court hearing where he faces being remanded in custody -- a decision that would have automatically removed him from office under Guatemalan law.

Speaking ahead of the Thursday morning hearing, prosecutors said they would ask the judge to jail the 64-year-old retired general pending trial.

Perez said in his resignation letter that he will answer the accusations against him "with a clear conscience."

"Given the current situation and above all considering the interests of the state, I must follow due process and thus appear before the court and resolve my personal situation with the conviction of doing what is right," he wrote in the letter, reprinted in the local press.



- Backed into a corner -



The scandal erupted in April, when investigators from a United Nations commission tasked with fighting high-level graft in Guatemala began accusing administration officials of involvement in a scheme dubbed "La Linea" (The Line), named for the hotline that importers would allegedly call to access a network of corrupt officials.

Perez, a former military intelligence officer, long rejected calls to resign before his term ended. In office since 2012, he was barred from running for re-election, and would have handed over to his successor in January.

But he ultimately had little room to maneuver.

After his immunity was stripped, a judge barred him from leaving the country.

On Wednesday, the country's highest court rejected two motions filed by his lawyers challenging the legality of the proceedings against him.

In a last-ditch bid to avoid being taken into custody, Perez then filed a court document saying he would cooperate with the investigation.

But even that did not stop Judge Miguel Angel Galvez, who is presiding over the case, from ordering his arrest.



- Tensions ahead of election -



Investigators say their accusations are based on some 89,000 wire-tapped phone calls that uncovered "La Linea."

The UN investigative commission also uncovered separate corruption schemes implicating the top officials of the central bank and social security administration, forcing them to resign.

Perez had been left increasingly isolated by the scandals.

Six of his 14 ministers had resigned in recent days, along with several other top officials.

The climate is jubilant but tense heading into Sunday's elections, which will also choose the members of the 158-seat legislature and 338 mayors.

The UN warned Wednesday there was a risk of violent protests on voting day.

Rights groups have reported cases of political party activists attacking protesters, and some 10 candidates were murdered between March and August.

In a sign of Guatemalans' exasperation with politics as usual, a poll published Thursday found the leading candidate in Sunday's presidential vote is now actor Jimmy Morales, whose previously underdog campaign is his first foray into politics.

Paula Flores, protester
- Oscar Aranda, protester
- Luisa Fernanda Urquizu, protester
SHOTLIST:

GUATEMALA, GUATEMALA, 3 SEPTEMBER 2015
SOURCE: AFPTV

IMAGES (00:40)

-VAR people celebrating the resignation of President Otto Perez Molina

SOUNDBITE 1 - Paula Flores, protester (woman, Spanish, 9 sec.) : "We are moved, very happy to see that the people's struggles have paid off today. Because it is public pressure that led him to resign. "

In Spanish: “Emoción, es mucha felicidad de ver que toda la lucha ciudadana, de ver aquí a toda la gente, hoy dio sus frutos, porque fue por la presión popular que renunció.”

SOUNDBITE 2 - Oscar Aranda, protester (man, Spanish, 8 sec.): "We are celebrating the sacrifice, steadfastness, and perseverance of a people that anxiously asked that justice be done every Saturday. "

In Spanish: “Celebrando el sacrificio, la persistencia, la perseverancia de un pueblo que sábado tras sábado pedía ansiosamente que se hiciera justicia.”

SOUNDBITE 3 - Luisa Fernanda Urquizu, protester (woman, Spanish, 8 sec.) : « The resignation of the president is further proof of the strength of a united front fighting for the people of Guatemala. No more corruption in the government ! »

In Spanish: “La renuncia del presidente es una prueba más de la fuerza de un solo corazón unido por el pueblo de Guatemala. ¡Ya no más corruptos en el gobierno!”
DURATION: 01:31









 
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