The Guatemalan Public Ministry initiated legal actions against the Colombian Defense Minister, Iván Velásquez, for his performance when he was in charge of the International Commission against Impunity (Cicig) in Guatemala, straining the relationship between the two countries: they called their ambassadors for consultations .
Guatemalan prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche accuses the Colombian of having irregularly endorsed the “protected witness” agreement granted to three officials of the Brazilian multinational construction company Odebrecht in 2017, during a bribery investigation.
The reaction of the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, was not long in coming: he warned that the relationship would be affected if the Prosecutor’s Office of the Central American country insists on taking action against Velásquez, while the president of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, called for sanity to his counterpart and said that it is not a “criminal prosecution”.
An investigator against Odebrecht
Iván Velásquez, born in Colombia 67 years ago, was head of the Cicig in Guatemala between 2013 and 2017, when he carried out a historic fight against corruption in which dozens of illegal structures that operated within government institutions were dismantled.
Prosecutor Curruchiche was sanctioned in 2022 by the US with the withdrawal of his visa and the prohibition to enter its territory, because according to the Government of President Joe Biden, he had created false cases to make spurious accusations.
From the Davos Forum in Switzerland, President Petro spoke on Tuesday about his minister: “We will defend him, he will continue to be our minister and if Guatemala insists on arresting just men, well, we have nothing to do with Guatemala.”
Referring to the accusations against Velásquez, Petro He affirmed that “criminals react” and said that his government will not allow his minister to be involved in accusations of illegal acts. “We are not going to allow that, assuming he (Velásquez) a position that had to do with the United Nationstransparently, honestly, be attacked for what you have done, be persecuted for your fight against impunity, be cornered by those who exercise that impunity”.
Complaint of persecution
In reference to Velásquez’s performance at the head of Cicig, The Colombian president said in Zurich that “to everyone who fights against corruption, who takes a vanguard role to destroy the impunity that dominated and dominates the Republic of Guatemala, Well, now he is persecuted by that type of interest that he touched”.
The Guatemalan president appealed to “democratic institutions, the rule of law and the separation of powers.”
According to Guatemalan opposition legislator Samuel Pérez, the process that could be started against the Colombian minister is a “revenge” for his role in the fight against corruption: “a revenge with rancor, because the people who now govern were investigated for corruption.” The US government also attacked the Guatemalan authorities and said that what was done by the Public Ministry weakens “the rule of law and confidence in the Guatemalan justice system.” According to Brian Nichols –undersecretary of the State Department for Latin America– “we are concerned about the arrest warrants issued by the Guatemalan Public Ministry against people who worked to guarantee accountability for corruption in the Odebrecht case in Guatemala.”
The president of Guatemala doubled the bet: “I am going to let President Petro continue making the mistake of a guerrilla, but that is not very political. I will not fall for the game. Differences between nations must be resolved diplomatically to prevent conflicts from escalating to places where it is already difficult to get out.”