Guatemala detains ex-VP who resigned amid graft scandal

A series of corruption scandals have gutted Perez’s cabinet, and his vice president Roxana Baldetti, who is suspected of involvement in a customs racket, was arrested earlier on Friday.

Prosecutors said they have enough evidence to presume that Baldetti, who is suspected of illicit association, fraud and graft, took part in a scheme that is believed to have defrauded the state of millions of dollars.

In this April 19, 2015 photo, Guatemala’s Vice President Roxana Baldetti attends a press conference at the presidential house in Guatemala City.

Prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Julia Barrera confirmed the arrest and said more details would be released later.

Baldetti was informed of her detention at a hospital where she was seeking treatment for health problems.

Guatemala’s prosecutor’s office said Friday that it requested permission from the Supreme Court to start an impeachment process for President Otto Perez Molina over a sprawling corruption case that has held the country in political turmoil for months.

Opposition lawmakers had demanded Baldetti face investigation, and Perez himself narrowly avoided losing his presidential immunity from prosecution last week when more than half of Congress voted that he should be stripped of it. The ring was allegedly masterminded by Baldetti’s aide, Juan Carlos Monzon Rojas.

Investigations led by Guatemala’s attorney general and the anti-impunity body known as CICIG into a wave of corruption scandals implicating several high-level government officials have fueled popular discontent with the government and widespread calls for the immediate resignation of President Perez Molina.

UN investigators presented wiretap conversations related in which participants mention “the R”, “the No. 2” and “the lady” – suspected references to the vice president.