Briefings & Intelligence

21-05-2015: Latin American Weekly Report

  • LatinNews

Guatemala in turmoil: first Baldetti, next Pérez Molina?

week that he was intending to resign. Insistent that he would remain in office to serve out the rest of his four-year term, which ends in January 2016, Pérez Molina made the remarks after yet another historic turnout of anti-government protesters – the latest following the corruption ring, La Línea, uncovered last month at the national tax authority (SAT) allegedly headed up by Juan Carlos Monzón, the former private secretary to former vice-president Roxana Baldetti. This has already forced out Baldetti [WR- 15-19] and seen Alejandro Sinibaldi quit as the ruling Partido Patriota (PP)’s presidential candidate ahead of general elections on 6 September. With another cabinet minister forced to step aside last week over alleged corruption, and a further three facing possible legal action, President Pérez Molina is facing the biggest political crisis of his mandate.

On 17 May some 60,000 people (on local press reports) participated in protests across the country organised by the civil society movement #RenunciaYa (Resign Now) – which has emerged in the wake of the SAT scandal. Demonstrations took place in Guatemala City, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala’s second city; the tourist city of Antigua; and the departmental capitals of Jalapa, San Marcos, Quiché, Chiquimula and Cobán. These protests saw wider turnout than those held at the end of last month which local commentators described as “unprecedented” since the 1996 Peace Accords ending the 36-year civil war, and played a part in Baldetti’s decision to step down.

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