You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Guatemalan High Court Blocks President from Expelling Head of U.N. Anti-Graft Unit

HeadlineAug 28, 2017

In Guatemala, protesters poured into the streets of Guatemala City on Sunday to protest against corruption, amid a standoff between Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales and the highest court over whether Morales could expel the head of a U.N. anti-corruption task force.

President Morales ordered the expulsion of Iván Velásquez, the head of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, on Sunday—only days after the commission said the president should be investigated for illegal campaign financing. Only hours later, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court suspended the president’s order. This is protester Patricia de León.

Patricia de León: “The problem the president has is not just the allegations against him and his family. He is a president who has not carried out his duties in these two years. And the people of Guatemala are sick of so much poverty, of so much corruption, highways you can’t use, children who are malnourished. And there has been no position from this government. Morales is a clown, a buffoon and corrupt.”

President Morales, a former comedian, took office in 2016 after massive anti-corruption protests ousted the now-jailed former President Otto Pérez Molina, who is also formerly a U.S.-backed military leader during Guatemala’s dirty wars.

Topics:
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top