The former Vice Minister of Hospitals, Gerardo Hernández, who is linked to criminal proceedings for the case of embezzlement of Q67.9 million in the National Hospital of Chimaltenango, said this Thursday, April 18, that he will accept the charges brought once morest him by the Public Ministry (MP). .
Hernández, who was also director of the San Juan de Dios General Hospital during the administration of Alejandro Giammattei, assures that he will accept the blame for the crime of non-compliance with duties, since, according to him, the MP might not prove that he committed fraud in said case.
Hernández was linked to criminal proceedings for the crime of fraud, but on February 7, the Tenth Criminal Judge, Victor Cruz, modified the crime to breach of duties in the case of corruption in said hospital, which had been recently inaugurated and was built with funding from the government of Taiwan.
According to the MP’s investigations, Hernández, while he was in charge of the Vice Ministry of Hospitals, allowed the adjudication of 772 events from December 21 to 23, 2022 with a value of Q67.9 million.
“Contradictorily, when they started the case, in a week they put together a case to get us into this big problem, and now that everything was clarified, that the investigation was done, that it was all the evidence that we have nothing to do with the case Well, now they are late, sometimes MP doesn’t show up, sometimes PGN doesn’t show up and this situation is really complicated because we already need to get out of this situation,” said Hernández.
He added that “the criminalistics report is evident, where there is no relation of my person in any of the acts that occurred and we in order to get out of the situation, as has happened to some honest people in Guatemala, such as Mr. Foppa, For example, that he had to accept charges to be able to get out of this, well, we are going to try to accept charges so that the personal and family nightmare that we were put into for wanting to make a change in the country ends.
He also pointed out that the crime has been changed to breach of duties, “since they might not demonstrate fraud, nor demonstrate illicit enrichment, nor illicit association, everything they tried to do, well, there is no evidence of anything.”
Hernández assures that the process has been delayed due to the interest of someone, but did not say who he suspects.
He added that he did not accept charges at the beginning of the process because he assures that he did not commit any of the crimes he was accused of.
He criticized deputies who, he said, used his case to gain votes in the last elections.
“There are Q23 million that entered and Q43 million that did not enter, that is, there is a crime, and that is what I wonder regarding. Here they keep making me wait knowing that I have no case, just like Dr. Gerardo Fuentes Rubio, who has no case, and where are the real culprits and why are they not investigating the real culprits? who signed? Who made all the movements and transfers?”
“The criminalistics report clearly says that it cannot be determined which vice minister has participation, but as vice minister of hospitals at that time, which is the third vice minister, they do not have any type of relationship with respect to the contracting law, I do not have a signature I don’t make budget movements, I had nothing to do with it, while there are other vice ministers who do have a hand in it, who did move the money, also specific people who need to be investigated, there were presidential delegates who were in charge of construction and hospital equipment that directly affected these types of cases and we do not see them being investigated,” said the former official.
He added that his career in the administrative area “ended” because of the accusations; Furthermore, he said that he came to that position because of his experience in public administration and that he did not know either President Giammattei or his work team because he was never a member of the Vamos party.
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