Guatemalan ex-president Otto Perez (left) arrives to a hearing at a court in Guatemala City yesterday. Judge Miguel Angel Galvez ordered the detention of Perez hours after he resigned his post amid a massive corruption scandal.

Reuters/Guatemala City


In a series of meetings that began early this year, the US government pressured Guatemala’s then-president Otto Perez to rid his administration of corrupt officials and to renew the mandate of a UN Commission charged with investigating corruption in Guatemala, according to officials with direct knowledge of the talks.
In April, Perez reluctantly approved the continued operation of the Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), and in May he fired key members of his cabinet and accepted the resignation of his vice president.
On Wednesday, less than two weeks after the commission he reauthorised accused him of corruption, Perez himself resigned from office, vowing to clear his name and accusing CICIG of prematurely condemning him.
The meetings between Perez and US officials, including US Ambassador Todd Robinson, took place as Guatemala and other Central American nations were seeking $20bn in US aid, as part of a so-called “Alliance for Prosperity,” two sources with direct knowledge of the meetings said, and the US used the lure of that aid to push Perez to act.
The Guatemalan president was a vocal proponent of the proposed assistance plan, which was conceived in 2014 as a way to stimulate regional growth and help stem a burgeoning exodus of Central American migrants fleeing violence at home.
The US had a strong interest in insuring that any aid it provided would not be diverted to corrupt officials.
“The US insisted that the government renew CICIG’s mandate, and they said that the Alliance For Prosperity depended on it,” said one of the officials with direct knowledge of the discussions.
During talks with Perez, the US ambassador explicitly urged him “to get Vice President (Roxana) Baldetti to resign” and “to rid his cabinet of those linked to corruption, but to do it in a staggered way to avoid an image of a collapsing government,” the official added.  In the months since Perez renewed CICIG’s mandate, the group’s probes have brought down a number of high-ranking officials, including the central bank president.
Perez’s own resignation came after CICIG’s commissioner and Guatemala’s attorney general publicly accused the president of directing a multi-million dollar customs fraud scheme known as ‘La Linea’ or ‘the line’, in which importers paid bribes to avoid customs duties.
Guatemalan prosecutors working with CICIG said they expect to charge the former president with illicit association, accepting bribes and customs fraud.
“We found that in the whole organisation ... there was an upper level with the regrettable participation of the president and Baldetti,” said Ivan Velasquez, commissioner of CICIG.   As pressure on him grew, Perez lambasted CICIG and also took a swipe at unidentified sectors of the international community for “seeking to intervene” in Guatemalan democracy.
Perez was detained overnight after hearing corruption charges against him in court, following his resignation Thursday.