Back in 2015, Guatemala's President Otto Perez Molina was forced to resign before being eventually found guilty of fraud and criminal conspiracy. His downfall seemed proof that impunity for corruption was not inevitable in a country plagued by 40 years of civil war. Perez was the prize catch of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), but this victory was short-lived. In 2018, the Commission was dissolved by the new president, Jimmy Morales, whom it was investigating. Since then, the justice system has been in the government's crosshairs: magistrates are arrested, imprisoned or forced into exile; journalists and lawyers risk the same fate. FRANCE 24's Laurence Cuvillier and Matthieu Comin report on the country's authoritarian drift.
On December 7, 2022, a Guatemalan court sentenced Perez, who had served as president between 2012 and 2015, to 16 years in prison over the customs fraud scandal that had led to his resignation. He announced his intention to appeal.
Perez, a retired general, was declared "criminally responsible" for illicit association and complicity in customs fraud. He was sentenced to eight years in prison for each offence, a total of sixteen years – with no possibility of early release – plus a $1 million fine.
In September 2018, major protests shook the country, triggered by then-President Morales's decision to let CICIG's mandate expire in September 2019. This UN-backed anti-corruption mission had been investigating the way Morales had financed his campaign for the 2015 presidential election. During that campaign, Morales had promised to fight corruption and extend the CICIG's mandate.
President Alejandro Giammattei, who succeeded Morales in January 2020, also claimed that he wanted to fight the corruption plaguing the country. But this was an empty promise: his term has been marked by a crackdown on magistrates and journalists who speak out against graft. Guatemala will learn the name of his successor on August 20: a former first lady, Sandra Torres, will face Bernardo Arevalo, son of a former president, in the presidential run-off.
