President of Guatemala Wins Vote to Preserve His Immunity
The vote in Congress rejected a request from Guatemala’s attorney general
and the head of a United Nations anticorruption panel, which last month described a series of violations by Mr. Morales’s party and two other parties during the 2015 election campaign.
12, 2017
MEXICO CITY — Guatemalan legislators on Monday overwhelmingly voted to keep President Jimmy Morales’s immunity from prosecution, a measure
that protects him from a campaign finance investigation that has roiled the country’s politics.
Mr. Morales plunged the country into a political crisis two days after the case against his party was announced
by ordering Ivan Velásquez, the head of the United Nations anticorruption panel, expelled from the country.
Two years ago, an investigation by the panel and the attorney general into a customs fraud ring led to an outpouring of citizen protest
that ultimately forced President Otto Pérez Molina to resign.
that Corrupt politicians are trying to prevent the country from changing.
With so many legislators embroiled in questions over campaign finance, the congressional vote not to
remove the president’s immunity appeared to be a decision to close ranks against the investigation.
Roberto Wagner said that Despite this being a ‘win’ for Jimmy, his image is completely destroyed,