Guatemala’s Embattled President

Guatemala’s Embattled President

The Editorial Board, New York Times

26 August 2015

Image: President Otto Pérez Molina of Guatemala. Credit Johan Ordonez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A decade ago, corruption in Guatemala was regarded as an indomitable, institutionalized plague. It was possible to scrape off a few layers, but hopeless to try to root it out.

Now a team of dogged investigators and prosecutors is on the cusp of an astonishing feat: bringing down President Otto Pérez Molina, who stands accused of having played a leading role in a huge kickback scheme. Authorities in Guatemala City arrested Mr. Pérez Molina’s former vice president, Roxana Baldetti, last Friday, and began to unveil an extensive dossier that has prompted public outrage and led to the resignation of at least 14 members of Mr. Pérez Molina’s cabinet.

In a region where judicial institutions are notoriously weak, politicized and corrupt, the transformation of Guatemala’s rule of law sector is a rare success story. It began in 2007 after civil society groups persuaded the government to agree to let the United Nations establish the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, an independent investigative agency that works alongside the attorney general’s office.

The arrangement, which had plenty of skeptics and faced significant political resistance, has worked extraordinarily well. In recent years, foreign legal experts have trained and empowered Guatemalan prosecutors to take on complex cases that have reached into corners of the country that had long benefited from a culture of impunity. As misdeeds by self-dealing public officials have come to light, Guatemalans — who endure countless deprivations, including ill-equipped public hospitals and police officers who often can’t respond to emergencies for lack of fuel — have been rightly outraged. In recent days, protesters have taken to the streets to demand Mr. Pérez Molina’s resignation.

“Citizens are demanding that these acts not be tolerated,” Claudia Paz y Paz, who served as attorney general until 2014, said in an interview. “When they see that people are pocketing public funds, it generates indignation.”

Mr. Pérez Molina, unsurprisingly, has not been a champion of the United Nations team. In recent years, the president has argued that Guatemalan law enforcement institutions were ready to take over when the mandate of the international entity expires next month. Ms. Baldetti, the former vice president, said derisively last year that the Guatemalan state “won’t need someone to help it cross the street forever.”

In April, however, when details of the corruption investigation first began to emerge, Mr. Pérez Molina had little choice but to sign off on a new mandate for the commission, which has been funded by foreign donors, including $30 million from the United States. In recent days, prosecutors have said there is conclusive evidence suggesting that Mr. Pérez Molina and Ms. Baldetti were among the top beneficiaries of the kickback scheme, which allowed certain importers to pay reduced fees.

The president, whose term expires in January, and who enjoys immunity while in office, has refused to heed the calls for his resignation, even as the business establishment and many politicians have turned on him. Of course he deserves his day in court, but right now he is only delaying the inevitable — meaning, quite likely, a prison sentence, along with one for Ms. Baldetti.

That outcome would send a powerful message to Guatemalans who aspire to be governed by honest leaders. It should also be studied, and possibly emulated, in neighboring countries where justice is still too often administered arbitrarily or not at all.