Guatemala Court Suspends Inquiry into UN-backed Anti-Corruption Commission
Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales. Source: Wikipedia.
On October 7, Guatemala’s highest court ordered the temporary suspension of the group investigating the CICIG, a United Nations-backed, anti-corruption delegation. Court magistrates voted 4 to 1.
For 12 years, the CICIG, or the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, independently investigated illegal security and criminal groups accused of infiltrating state institutions, undermining democracy, and engaging in other forms of corruption. The commission was started in 2007 by interrogating mafias who caused corruption within the government. In 2015, the CICIG made headlines by uncovering fraud at the customs office linked to then president Otto Perez, leading to his resignation.
Despite retaining support from 70 percent of the population, the Guatemalan government under President Jimmy Morales shut down the CICIG on September 3 after two years of inquiry into President Morales, his relatives, his party, and others connected to him. A few weeks later, on September 24, Guatemalan politicians authorized five investigators to begin investigating the CICIG itself. This mandate was set to last until days before the installation of a newly-elected president and Congress on January 10 of next year.
The Attorney General, a private lawyer, and civil society group Acción Ciudadana (AC) challenged the creation of the committee to begin with, explaining that it violated the autonomy of the Public Ministry.
Eddie Cuz, an attorney with AC, said: “There are certain inconsistencies in the agreement that creates the commission. In fact, all actions of calling witnesses [and] victims, creating a form including the number of inquiries...really threatens to contradict the principle of division of powers.”
The Constitutional Court issued a provisional injunction against the anti-CICIG coalition, citing discrepancies between the plaintiff’s decree and arguments presented by Congress. Many believe the inquiry was purely politically-motivated, and Cuz hopes that anti-commision members will respect the decision of the court.
This is not the first time the Guatemalan government has displayed disapproval of the CICIG. In 2018, defying a court order, President Morales banned the head of the CICIG from the country and removed 25 police officers from the CICIG security force.
U.S. Representative Norma Torres, who previously warned against the dissolution of the CICIG, considering it “a major setback for Guatemala’s fight against corruption,” called the inquiry into the CICIG “reprehensible.”
Iduvina Hernandez, director of the non-governmental organization Association for the Study and Promotion of Security in Democracy, also disparaged the anti-CICIG commission, asserting it was “clearly unconstitutional and therefore illegal.”
Despite the court’s ruling, anti-CICIG rhetoric among congressional officials continues, targeting any dissenters, including prosecutors who worked with the commission, human rights ombudsman Jordan Rodas, and the Constitutional Court itself.