Reuters/AFP/Guatemala City
Guatemalan President Otto Perez has dismissed corruption allegations levelled against him by prosecutors and said that he would not stand down, despite mounting pressure on the government and calls for his impeachment as a presidential election looms.
In a combative, pre-recorded address that was televised to the nation, an animated Perez said he had received no money from the customs racket to which investigators have linked him, and stressed that his conscience “was clear”.
Guatemala’s attorney-general and a UN-backed anti-corruption body known as the CICIG sought to impeach Perez on Friday after months of investigation based on some 86,000 wire-tapped phone calls into the racket known as La Linea, or “the line”, after a phone hotline used in the scandal.
Prosecutors and UN officials said on Friday that they had uncovered extensive evidence implicating Perez and former vice-president Roxana Baldetti in the massive, highly-organised scheme to reduce importers’ customs duties in exchange for bribes.
“I will not resign and will fully submit myself to the legal process,” said Perez, a 64-year-old retired general.
“I categorically reject any link (to the scandal),” he said, apologising for the scandals afflicting his government.
Perez said: “I will not resign. But with the same strength and character with which I reject my involvement, I cannot fail to recognise that this has happened in my government and to officials close to me or that I appointed, so this forces me to make a public apology.”
Perez also took a swipe at sectors of the international community that he said were “seeking to intervene” in Guatemalan democracy.
He did not specify to whom he was referring.
Investigations led by the CICIG have battered Guatemala’s political establishment and also engulfed the running mate of the favourite to succeed Perez, casting doubt on the outcome of the race.
On Friday, former vice-president Baldetti was arrested over the La Linea scandal.
Attorney-General Thelma Aldana submitted a bid to impeach Perez later that day.
Perez’s agriculture and health ministers both quit his cabinet on Sunday, following in the footsteps of two others on Saturday who said they could no longer serve in his government.
Baldetti, who stood down in May and was arrested on Friday while receiving treatment at a hospital, is suspected of illicit association, bribery and fraud linked to the customs racket.
Prosecutors say that Perez was at the head of the scam.
It is unclear how much money was involved in the fraud.
More than 20 people have been arrested over it so far.
The first round of the presidential vote is due on September 6 although, with a 50% winning threshold in place, the elections are likely to go to a second round run-off on October 25.
Perez cannot run for re-election under Guatemalan law.