(Guatemala) The President of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, announced on Tuesday that he would not go to the Summit of the Americas scheduled for early June in the United States, after strong criticism from Washington over the reappointment in this country of the attorney general suspected of of corruption.
Updated yesterday at 6:24 p.m.
“They’re not going to invite me to the Summit. Anyway, I let it be known that I will not go, ”said the head of state. The Summit of the Americas of Heads of State and Government is to be held on June 10 in Los Angeles, United States.
“I said and I repeat to the ambassador of this nation (the United States) that this country (Guatemala) can be of this size but that as long as I am president, this country will be respected and its sovereignty will be respected,” the president said during a ceremony at the Mexican Embassy in Guatemala, a small country in Central America.
The reappointment Monday for a four-year term of Consuelo Porras as attorney general has drawn strong criticism from Washington, which had placed the attorney general in September 2021 on the American list of “corrupt actors”.
In a statement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Mr.me Porras of “repeatedly obstructing and undermining anti-corruption investigations in Guatemala to protect his political allies and obtain undue political favors”.
Mme Porras and her immediate family members are barred from entering the United States, and her husband has also been sanctioned.
On Tuesday, the Public Ministry reacted by declaring that it would not accept foreign “interference”.
“The Attorney General and Head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) does not accept any kind of interference or pressure and will continue her work in an objective and impartial manner ensuring strict compliance with the law,” the Public Prosecutor’s Office said on Twitter.
“The Public Ministry is an autonomous institution which is not subject to any international entity”, adds the message to which was attached a copy of Mr. Blinken’s press release.
The European Union also reacted to this appointment, saying it regretted the “decision” of the Head of State which “raises concern about the commitment of the Guatemalan authorities to fight corruption and safeguard the independence of the judiciary”.
In a press release, the EU recalls that under the “supervision of this Attorney General, the Public Ministry has launched legal actions against several judges, lawyers, prosecutors involved in investigations into high-level corruption cases”.
“This is part of a larger pattern of intimidation and harassment that has caused more than 20 justice actors to leave the country,” the EU said.
In recent months, the Public Ministry, under the orders of Mme Porras, ordered the arrest of at least six jurists who worked in anti-mafia bodies in Guatemala, accusing them of irregularities in their work.
For the defendants, these arrests are a “revenge” against those who have fought against corruption, a version rejected by Mme Porras.
In 2021, prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval, then considered a “champion in the fight against corruption” by Washington, was also sacked.
Now in exile in the United States, Mr Sandoval told AFP in March that he had been removed from his post after reports emerged that he had evidence of “possible bribes”. wine” paid to the president by Russian businessmen wishing to manage a port on the Caribbean coast.