Public Prosecutor Opens Impeachment of Guatemalan President

The scandal at the customs agency involved kickbacks paid by businesspeople in return for lower import duties.

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

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.

Guatemalan prosecutors and a UN investigative commission accused President Otto Perez on Friday of being one of the ringleaders of a customs bribery scandal shaking the country.

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

President Otto Perez Molina, who leaves office in January, has also been accused of involvement but he has so far avoided attempts to have his immunity lifted.

Commission chief Ivan Velasquez said investigators suspect that in just one week, bribes could have totaled at least $262,000.

“We have evidence that goes beyond the phone calls”, he said at a joint press conference with local prosecutors.

Presidential elections have been scheduled for September. Guatemalan presidents are limited to a single four-year term, so Perez Molina is ineligible to run for re-election.

The leading candidate to succeed him is Manuel Baldizon of the right-wing Democratic Liberty party.

In a separate case, central bank President Julio Suarez and 16 other people were charged in May for their roles in approving an allegedly fraudulent contract issued by the Social Security Institute.