The president of Guatemala is investigated for alleged bribery of Russian businessmen

The Guatemalan Public Ministry has opened an investigation into alleged bribes received by President Alejandro Giammattei from Russian businessmen to receive a concession at a port on the border with Honduras.

This was announced on Friday by the spokesman for the prosecution, Juan Luis Pantaleón, who clarified that the investigation is not directly against the president, because he enjoys immunity, but about the alleged crime.

More news

• Washington, the capital of Guatemalan justice in exile

• Juan Francisco Sandoval: "If the president did not ask for my departure, it could cause him great satisfaction"

• Guatemala shakes the fight against corruption with the dismissal of the special prosecutor against impunity

The investigation was opened after some media, including

The New York Times

, echoed the statements of a witness before the former anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval, in which he denounced that he had delivered a carpet to the president's house. rolled up full of money from a mining company “backed by Russia”, with the aim of “bribing Giammattei” for the right “to operate part of a Guatemalan port”.

According to what has been known through the media and a summons from the opposition National Unity of Hope party, there were five Russian businessmen who allegedly gave the money to the president last April in exchange for receiving a concession to operate in the port. Santo Tomás de Castilla, in the department of Izabal, bordering Honduras.

Former prosecutor Sandoval, who fled to the United States alleging persecution after being dismissed on July 23, had denounced that he himself was investigating alleged crimes of corruption that were approaching Giammattei and his circle. In addition, he said that this was one of the reasons why he was removed from his position by the head of the Public Ministry, Consuelo Porras, close to the president and whom various judges and prosecutors in exile accuse of being involved in the "corrupt pact ”, The sectors of power whom they accuse of co-opting the institutions of the State to act in their favor.

On Thursday, Porras had announced in an interview with Noticiero Guatevisión that the investigation had begun to verify the witness's statements cited by the media.

"Point to where you want to point the investigation, we all have to be subject to the law," said the attorney general.

"Our institutional performance will be adjusted to the law, whoever it is."

Join EL PAÍS now to follow all the news and read without limits

Subscribe here

If evidence is found to incriminate him, the Public Ministry can request the withdrawal of presidential immunity to investigate Giammattei.

At the moment, the president has not ruled on the opening of the investigation publicly.

On the other hand, a criminal court issued an arrest warrant against former anti-corruption prosecutor Sandoval this Friday for alleged crimes of obstruction of criminal action and breach of duties.

After hearing the news, the former head of the Special Prosecutor's Office Against Corruption (FECI) accused Consuelo Porras of persecuting those who have dedicated themselves to "investigating the truth and building justice."

Sandoval's dismissal sparked protests in Guatemala and was condemned by the international community and caused the United States, which this year had awarded him for his anti-corruption fight, to suspend its cooperation with the Public Ministry, alleging that it had lost confidence in the work of the Guatemalan prosecutor's office in the fight against corruption.

Subscribe here

to the

EL PAÍS América

newsletter

and receive all the information keys on the region's current affairs