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| Guatemala president appears in court as congress accepts resignation | Guatemala president appears in court as congress accepts resignation |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Guatemala’s president, Otto Pérez Molina, has resigned and is now facing criminal charges in relation to a major corruption scam, prompting scenes of jubilation in the poverty-stricken Central American country, just days before a general election. | Guatemala’s president, Otto Pérez Molina, has resigned and is now facing criminal charges in relation to a major corruption scam, prompting scenes of jubilation in the poverty-stricken Central American country, just days before a general election. |
| Congress voted unanimously to accept his resignation on Thursday afternoon, by which time Pérez Molina was already sitting before a judge, while prosecutors presented evidence to support charges of unlawful association, bribery and customs fraud. | |
| Dressed in a dark suit, Pérez Molina listened impassively as the court heard phone recordings that allegedly implicate him in a corruption ring that prosecutors claim raised $3.7m in bribes in a single year. Half of that sum is alleged to have gone to Pérez Molina and his former vice-president Roxana Baldetti. | Dressed in a dark suit, Pérez Molina listened impassively as the court heard phone recordings that allegedly implicate him in a corruption ring that prosecutors claim raised $3.7m in bribes in a single year. Half of that sum is alleged to have gone to Pérez Molina and his former vice-president Roxana Baldetti. |
| Related: 'Our Central American spring': protesters demand an end to decades of corruption | Related: 'Our Central American spring': protesters demand an end to decades of corruption |
| Pérez Molina’s decision to step down is a huge victory for an unprecedented anti-corruption protest movement that has swelled in recent months with regular marches in major cities, road blockades in rural areas and a general strike last Thursday. | Pérez Molina’s decision to step down is a huge victory for an unprecedented anti-corruption protest movement that has swelled in recent months with regular marches in major cities, road blockades in rural areas and a general strike last Thursday. |
| Pérez Molina has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and had previously struck a defiant tone insisting he would not step down. | Pérez Molina has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and had previously struck a defiant tone insisting he would not step down. |
| Noisy celebrations erupted across Guatemala City on Thursday morning as news of his resignation began to spread. Fireworks were set off in public squares and gardens, while people on their way to work honked their car horns. Homes, cars, buses and shops were immediately draped in the blue and white national flag. | Noisy celebrations erupted across Guatemala City on Thursday morning as news of his resignation began to spread. Fireworks were set off in public squares and gardens, while people on their way to work honked their car horns. Homes, cars, buses and shops were immediately draped in the blue and white national flag. |
| “We did it, the people did it,” said 33-year-old Gabriel Wer in a phone interview from the main square in the capital. But Wer, one of the organisers behind the huge weekly protests that started in April, warned: “But this is not the end, now we’re looking for justice.” | “We did it, the people did it,” said 33-year-old Gabriel Wer in a phone interview from the main square in the capital. But Wer, one of the organisers behind the huge weekly protests that started in April, warned: “But this is not the end, now we’re looking for justice.” |
| The 64-year-old president submitted his resignation after a judge ordered his detention over allegations that he headed a customs fraud in which public officials systematically took bribes from importers in exchange for reducing tariffs. | The 64-year-old president submitted his resignation after a judge ordered his detention over allegations that he headed a customs fraud in which public officials systematically took bribes from importers in exchange for reducing tariffs. |
| The presidential spokesman, Jorge Ortega, told reporters that Pérez Molina had decided to step down “to maintain the institution of the presidency and resolve on his own the legal proceedings levelled against him”. | The presidential spokesman, Jorge Ortega, told reporters that Pérez Molina had decided to step down “to maintain the institution of the presidency and resolve on his own the legal proceedings levelled against him”. |
| Government institutions were ordered to remove all official presidential photographs – even before congress had accepted Pérez Molina’s resignation. | |
| As the court hearing continued on Thursday afternoon, vice-president, Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre was sworn in as the country’s new leader in a hasty ceremony in Congress. | |
| Maldonado Aguirre used his first speech as head of state to demand the resignation of the entire cabinet, and promised to enlist civil society groups to help name their successors. | |
| “The new government must know it is necessary to inspire citizen confidence,” President Maldonado said. “We need to prove that ethics can be consistent with government, even if it is just for a few months.” | |
| The fraud was first revealed by a UN-backed criminal investigation in April, and has already led to the imprisonment of 38 people, including his former vice-president Baldetti who had resigned in May after a first wave of protests. | The fraud was first revealed by a UN-backed criminal investigation in April, and has already led to the imprisonment of 38 people, including his former vice-president Baldetti who had resigned in May after a first wave of protests. |
| Pérez Molina resisted the pressure for months but his position began to look untenable on Tuesday after congress voted to strip him of his immunity from prosecution. | Pérez Molina resisted the pressure for months but his position began to look untenable on Tuesday after congress voted to strip him of his immunity from prosecution. |
| By that time the protest movement – initially dominated by the young and left-leaning urban middle class – had grown to include peasant and indigenous organisations from rural areas. | By that time the protest movement – initially dominated by the young and left-leaning urban middle class – had grown to include peasant and indigenous organisations from rural areas. |
| Once powerful business leaders also backed calls for his resignation, the president quickly lost support, as a rash of cabinet ministers and diplomats resigned from their posts. | Once powerful business leaders also backed calls for his resignation, the president quickly lost support, as a rash of cabinet ministers and diplomats resigned from their posts. |
| This put tremendous pressure on congress to approve a request to remove Pérez Molina’s immunity, with even deputies linked to rightwing parties which had previously backed him apparently concerned that not supporting the impeachment-style process would lose them votes in Sunday’s general elections. | This put tremendous pressure on congress to approve a request to remove Pérez Molina’s immunity, with even deputies linked to rightwing parties which had previously backed him apparently concerned that not supporting the impeachment-style process would lose them votes in Sunday’s general elections. |
| “He failed us all, he deceived us. He is corrupt and he has to go,” said Leonel Ramírez, a 55-year-old small business owner who had voted for Pérez Molina in 2011. | “He failed us all, he deceived us. He is corrupt and he has to go,” said Leonel Ramírez, a 55-year-old small business owner who had voted for Pérez Molina in 2011. |
| “But it is not just him, there is generalised corruption so the whole system has to change.” | “But it is not just him, there is generalised corruption so the whole system has to change.” |
| Pérez Molina is not standing in the elections, which have been dogged by allegations of criminal involvement; in July the country’s UN-backed anti-impunity body calculated that Guatemala’s political parties received half their funding through corruption and criminal networks. | Pérez Molina is not standing in the elections, which have been dogged by allegations of criminal involvement; in July the country’s UN-backed anti-impunity body calculated that Guatemala’s political parties received half their funding through corruption and criminal networks. |
| The leading candidate is a wealthy far-right businessman called Manuel Baldizón who has repeatedly been accused of having links to criminal groups. The other 13 candidates include a comedian, a former first lady and the daughter of ex-dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. | The leading candidate is a wealthy far-right businessman called Manuel Baldizón who has repeatedly been accused of having links to criminal groups. The other 13 candidates include a comedian, a former first lady and the daughter of ex-dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. |
| Martín Rodríguez Pellecer, founder of the investigative news website Nomada, said it was possible that the constitutional court would suspend Sunday’s elections to allow for electoral reforms and new candidates to come forward. | Martín Rodríguez Pellecer, founder of the investigative news website Nomada, said it was possible that the constitutional court would suspend Sunday’s elections to allow for electoral reforms and new candidates to come forward. |
| Two of the five judges are in favour of suspending elections, two are against, and the fifth is currently suspended. | Two of the five judges are in favour of suspending elections, two are against, and the fifth is currently suspended. |
| “Already 10% of congress is under investigation [for corruption],” he said. “That’s the main reason why congress voted to strip Otto Pérez of his immunity, it’s because they are scared and trying to save themselves. These are not the conditions to hold elections.” | “Already 10% of congress is under investigation [for corruption],” he said. “That’s the main reason why congress voted to strip Otto Pérez of his immunity, it’s because they are scared and trying to save themselves. These are not the conditions to hold elections.” |
| Pérez Molina’s successor is a conservative lawyer and former constitutional court justice. Maldonado was also one of three judges who overturned a groundbreaking 2013 verdict that found Ríos Montt guilty of genocide. | |
| That verdict had been celebrated by human rights activists across the world as a first sign that justice might just be possible in a country that endured decades of military rule, as well as an infamously brutal 36-year civil war in which many villages were razed to the ground by the army in an effort to terrify the primarily indigenous rural population into withholding support from leftwing guerrillas. | That verdict had been celebrated by human rights activists across the world as a first sign that justice might just be possible in a country that endured decades of military rule, as well as an infamously brutal 36-year civil war in which many villages were razed to the ground by the army in an effort to terrify the primarily indigenous rural population into withholding support from leftwing guerrillas. |
| Pérez Molina himself is a former head of military intelligence who helped negotiate the peace accords that ended the war in 1996, but failed to fulfil the promise of addressing the tremendous injustices, particularly against the indigenous population, that were recognised to be the root causes of the conflict. | Pérez Molina himself is a former head of military intelligence who helped negotiate the peace accords that ended the war in 1996, but failed to fulfil the promise of addressing the tremendous injustices, particularly against the indigenous population, that were recognised to be the root causes of the conflict. |
| The Guatemalan protests in some ways echo a similar anti-corruption movement in Honduras, though the press there is far less vocal, the local judicial system far weaker, and there is no equivalent to the unprecedented UN-backed investigative commission set up to help address pervasive impunity in Guatemala. | The Guatemalan protests in some ways echo a similar anti-corruption movement in Honduras, though the press there is far less vocal, the local judicial system far weaker, and there is no equivalent to the unprecedented UN-backed investigative commission set up to help address pervasive impunity in Guatemala. |