Guatemala attorney general's reappointment raises alarm
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Loading... - Jorge Escamilla
- 18 Jul 2022
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Guatemala’s controversial attorney general has started a second term, but Maria Consuelo Porras‘ last-minute reappointment this week has sparked widespread condemnation and new sanctions amid alarm over backsliding on the rule of law.
President Alejandro Giammattei swore in Porras for another four-year period on Monday, despite critics who accuse her of playing a role in dismantling anti-corruption efforts and judicial independence, including through the “persecution” of key anti-impunity prosecutors and judges.
“We are entering an authoritarian period in Guatemala,” said Edie Cux, legal director of Accion Ciudadana, the Guatemalan chapter of Transparency International, a global anti-corruption NGO.
“It generates not only a crisis of the justice system but also a crisis in general in the country,” he told Al Jazeera.
The United States announced new repercussions just hours after the swearing-in ceremony, barring both Porras and her husband from entering the US. Washington suspended aid to her office last year, as well.
“During her tenure, Porras repeatedly obstructed and undermined anticorruption investigations in Guatemala to protect her political allies and gain undue political favor,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement explaining the move.
The Department of State had already placed Porras on a separate list of Corrupt and Undemocratic Actors last year after she summarily fired Juan Francisco Sandoval, the renowned Special Anti-Impunity Prosecutor at the helm of high-profile investigations into high-level corruption. Read More...
