Guatemalan ex-VP arrested for corruption

Documents seized in raids “lead one to consider it highly probable that the president of the republic may have participated in the same” scheme, Attorney General Thelma Aldana said at a news conference.

Perez Molina’s former Vice President Roxana Baldetti was detained Friday in connection with a customs corruption scandal that led to her resignation.

On Friday, police arrested Baldetti, 53, at a private hospital where she had been undergoing treatment for gastrointestinal and heart problems.

The ring known as “La Linea”, or “The Line”, was allegedly masterminded by Baldetti’s aide, Juan Carlos Monzon Rojas, who is now a fugitive.

Perez’s conservative administration has spent the past few months mired in public protests and scandals over corruption allegations against senior officials, several of whom the retired general fired during a cabinet purge in May.

The Office of the Public Prosecutor and the UN-backed worldwide Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) also made calls to strip the president of his immunity from prosecution. Many of them are high government officials.

In response to the charges, the country’s business sector association, CACIF, also called for Molina’s immediate resignation. Perez Molina has repeatedly denied involvement.

Prosecutors stated they’ve sufficient proof to presume that Baldetti, who’s suspected of illicit affiliation, fraud and graft, took half in a scheme that’s believed to have defrauded the state of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Guatemalans have been taking to the streets around the country demanding Perez Molina’s resignation, justice and systemic change on a weekly basis since April.

A UN investigative commission said it has uncovered extensive evidence implicating Perez in corruption. He didn’t respond directly when asked about the report on Friday, telling reporters that “we have to know what the situation is and then we will have something to say”.

Perez, whose term ends in January, can not run in the September 6 elections. Protesters have increasingly called for the election to be delayed, and the charges have further added to the disenfranchisement that many Guatemalan citizens feel with the country’s political system.