Guatemalans step up protests of president's attacks on anti-graft body
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Starting at daybreak on Tuesday, thousands of people blocked a major highway in Guatemala’s western highlands on the second consecutive day of protests to demand that President Jimmy Morales allow a U.N.-backed anti-graft body to work.
FILE PHOTO: Guatemala's President Jimmy Morales delivers a message at the National Palace of Culture in Guatemala City, Guatemala September 6, 2018, 2018. REUTERS/Luis Echeverria
Bearing anti-Morales signs and dressed in colorful traditional clothing, TV images showed indigenous Maya protesting Morales’ decision not to renew the mandate of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and to ban the group’s leader, Ivan Velasquez, from returning to the country.
Both measures have been harshly criticized by domestic and international observers as a step back in Guatemala’s fight against corruption.
Indigenous activist Andrea Ixchiu wrote on Twitter that the protesters she was with were determined to stay until Morales took action.
“We are here and we aren’t leaving,” she wrote.
Additional demonstrations were planned later in the day outside Congress in Guatemala City, with another march in the capital planned for Wednesday.
FILE PHOTO: Commissioner of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) Ivan Velasquez speaks during the 8th annual activities report of the CICIG in Guatemala City, November 13, 2015. REUTERS/Jorge Dan Lopez
In addition to the moves against the anti-graft body, protesters oppose two legislative initiatives: one due to be discussed in Congress on Tuesday that would give the legislature power to oversee the process of stripping politicians of their immunity and another that would permit almost 80 congressmen who have defected from the opposition to join Morales’ party.
Critics say the combination of measures against the commission and the legislative initiatives are designed to protect Morales from legal proceedings in a corruption investigation. Morales says he is protecting the country’s sovereignty.
“It is clear we are facing a clear plan by Congress to generate mechanisms of impunity,” said Oswaldo Samayoa, a criminal law professor at Guatemala’s San Carlos university.
In August, the nation’s Supreme Court decided to consider a request to strip Morales of his immunity for his alleged participation in illegal electoral financing. The proceeding, supported by CICIG, is the third against him.
Formed in 2006 to help Guatemalan prosecutors break a cycle of impunity, CICIG is credited with improving the Central American country’s justice system.
Morales’ predecessor is in prison and standing trial for allegedly running a customs racket uncovered by CICIG. Last year, the commission started investigating the current president’s family for alleged corruption and supported impeaching him.
Morales, a former comedian elected in 2015, denies any wrongdoing and says the CICIG has overstepped its remit.
Reporting by Sofia Menchu; writing by Julia Love; Editing by Dan Grebler
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