Colombian Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez during a military ceremony in Bogota December 17, 2022. DANIEL MUNOZ / AFP
Ivan Velasquez accused of corruption? In Bogota, astonishment quickly gave way to indignation. The interrogation of the famous Colombian lawyer by the Guatemalan judiciary poisoned relations between the government of Colombian Gustavo Petro (left) and that of Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei (right) for four days. Ivan Velasquez chaired the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig) from 2013 to 2019. Today he is his country’s defense minister.
“Ivan Velasquez has our full support,” Mr. Petro replied on the evening of January 16. We will not allow him to be attacked and prosecuted for fighting crime and corruption. If Guatemala keeps imprisoning righteous men, we have nothing to do with each other. Mr Petro recalled his ambassador based in Guatemala for consultation on Tuesday. The Central American country immediately did the same in the name of reciprocity.
Two days earlier, Rafael Curruchiche, head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI) in Guatemala, had launched an investigation, accusing Ivan Velasquez and several of his former associates of committing “irregular and illegal” acts during the investigations he was conducting which cicig against the Brazilian construction group Odebrecht, nicknamed the “multinational of corruption”.
Great prestige
Cicig was established in 2006 under the aegis of the United Nations to assist prosecutors in investigating how criminal structures infiltrated institutions. It was dismantled by then-President Jimmy Morales in 2019 after he became involved in cases himself. Since then, their officials and the judges who work with them have been subjected to systematic persecution. More than thirty anti-corruption prosecutors and judges have had to leave their country.
Also read: Former anti-corruption prosecutor in Guatemala sentenced to four years in prison
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the US government have expressed their “concern” about the practices of the Guatemalan judiciary. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Transparency International have also pledged their full support to Mr Velasquez.
US Undersecretary of State Brian Nichols said he was “concerned” by Rafael Curruchiche’s actions. “Such actions undermine the rule of law and trust in the judicial system in Guatemala,” Nichols wrote on Twitter. He recalled that since July 2022, Mr. Curruchiche has been suspected of corruption by the United States, which revoked his visa. The current Attorney General of Guatemala, Consuelo Porras, is also on the blacklist of “corrupt and undemocratic” figures in the region.
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