Last Wednesday, April 24, the Public Ministry (MP), through the Special Prosecutor’s Office once morest Impunity (Feci), requested information from the Presidency related to the case of the purchase of Sputnik vaccines. Among the requirements is the operation and hiring of the Presidential Commission for Attention to the Covid-19 Emergency (Coprecovid). In this regard, the Attorney General of the Nation, Julio Saavedra, assures that it is an attempt by the investigating entity to relate it to the case.
In interview with Free PressSaavedra indicates that the Prosecutor’s Office acted in reaction to the complaint that was filed regarding the contract for the acquisition of immunizers on April 4, a complaint signed by the Minister of Health, Óscar Cordón.
What is your reaction to the requirements made by Feci?
There is a very strong message from them, and that is that they are reacting to the great case of corruption that was made known to the population. What they want to do is make me a political target, obviously.
Why do you assure that it is the objective of the MP?
I was a legal advisor to Coprecovid, I provided my professional services as a lawyer, advising legally on what I was required to do. I was part of the team, I was their legal advisor from around August 2020 to December 2020, for four months.
What was the work of Coprecovid that you advised?
The functions of Coprecovid were not to buy or enter into contracts, or review acquisition contracts, that is a competence that the Vaccine Law, which Congress issued in 2021, granted, since the Commission had been extinguished.
So, there it was established that it was the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance or the Guatemalan Institute of Social Security that had, under their own responsibility, to be in charge of acquiring the vaccines.
How do you explain then that they are now investigating Coprecovid?
What they want is to link me, definitively, link me for all the functions that I perform and my conviction of wanting to defend the interests of the State of Guatemala.
I am really fighting once morest corruption and trying to ensure that the rule of law really exists in Guatemala, and not what the MP has been doing for years.
Something important is that in the documents -from the MP- it is seen that it is a file from 2021, that is, it took more than three years to come to request information regarding the creation agreement and regarding who made up the Commission.
It is not until the month of April 2024 when, as a consequence of the presentation of this major case of corruption, which is the presentation of the complaint by the Minister of Health, who I accompanied him, that they then come to react.
What expectations do you have of the progress of the case following this request?
The expectation is that the MP really investigates and determines who is responsible for that treasonous negotiation for the interests of the State of Guatemala, for that negotiation that really cost the lives of Guatemalans, and that you already know the content of the contract.
I never had in my hands or advised on that contract, and what I would expect is that the MP really investigates those responsible for that negotiation contrary to the interests of the State.
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