[ad_1]
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — One of the last remaining official pillars of Guatemala’s anti-corruption effort is leaving his post this week, following a string of other anti-graft fighters being ousted or defected that has shaken the Central American country’s ruling class.
Five years ago, Jordan Rodas Andrade was a relative unknown law professor at a university in Guatemala’s sixth-largest city before being elected human rights prosecutor by Congress, where he surprised many by helping launch an anti-corruption campaign that targeted many of the country’s most powerful men.
“The people are tired of corruption,” Rodas said in an interview this week as his five-year term nears the end on Saturday. The ombudsman’s job is to protect the constitutional rights of Guatemalans, which could put him at odds with other officials.
Rodas’ repeated court actions to block government actions infuriated then-President Jimmy Morales, who labeled Rodas an “ampalito” (little injunction). One such action temporarily blocked Morales’ attempt to oust the head of the United Nations anti-corruption mission in Guatemala, an investigation that implicated some of Morales’ family members.
In 2019, President Morales finally ended a UN-backed anti-corruption mission that worked with local prosecutors to root out corruption and led to the imprisonment of several senior officials, including former President Otto Pérez Molina.
Under current President Alejandro Giammattei, several Guatemalan prosecutors who cooperated with the mission have been purged, as well as the judges who handled their cases.
Juan Francisco Sandoval, who headed the Attorney General’s anti-corruption bureau, was fired in July 2021 and fled to the United States. Sandoval said his bureau had opened an investigation into Giammattei. Authorities later said they had received an order for his arrest. In response, the U.S. government suspended cooperation with the Attorney General’s bureau.
Rodas said Giammattei was obsessed with power and had managed to co-opt other branches of government and centralize it “as if he were an emperor.”
“I thought we had hit rock bottom under Jimmy Morales, but that wasn’t the case. I’m surprised!” he said. Giammattei denies the corruption allegations and has resented U.S. pressure to appoint a different attorney general.
Congress chose Alejandro Cordoba to replace Rodas. Mr. Cordoba, a former Supreme Court justice, had been warned by the attorney general’s anti-corruption bureau for meeting with a businessman arrested on suspicion of corruption and patronage in the selection of judges. Mr. Cordoba was not the subject of the investigation. He has the support of the president and ruling party lawmakers.
Rodas’ resignation came three months after Giammattei reappointed Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who has played a key role in prosecuting and firing anti-corruption activists. The U.S. government revoked her visa and added her to a list of corruption suspects in the region.
Jorge Santos, coordinator of the nongovernmental organization Guatemala’s Unit for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, said Rodas has expanded the ombudsman’s scope of work, particularly by establishing an office to investigate disappearances at the hands of security forces and to defend freedom of expression and human rights defenders.
“The challenge for the new ombudsman is that he is very close to those in power and that impunity continues,” he said. “We want him to be independent of those in power.”
Rodas’ independence has brought him political prestige but also earned him many enemies: Opponents in Congress tried multiple times to start proceedings to remove him from office but failed, and lawmakers held his office’s finances hostage for months, making it impossible for him to pay his staff’s salaries.
Rodolfo Neuzete, a lawmaker from the conservative Commitment, Renewal and Order party, said Rodas had failed to strengthen institutions and had divided Guatemalan society.
“Today, many people believe that the Ombudsman’s office serves leftists, criminals and anti-family ideology,” Neutze said. “He’s done some good things that nobody knows about, but he’ll be remembered for supporting causes that divided the country.”
His outspokenness has drawn threats from far-right groups that defend soldiers accused of crimes against humanity, as well as from targets of corruption investigations who have warned he will face charges, as will several former anti-corruption prosecutors.
Rodas said he was concerned about his family’s well-being but not his own, and has not ruled out a possible political entry, but has not made any announcements.
“I don’t need to defect. When I graduate, I want to focus on my studies back where I’m from. I’ll be able to stay with Jordan for a while.”
[ad_2]
Source link
