In mid-May, President Bernardo Arévalo removed Communications Minister Jazmín De la Vega from office for making payments outside the technical mechanism approved by him. On August 5, at a press conference, the president again justified the payment methodology of the Ministry of Communications, Infrastructure and Housing (CIV).
Arévalo insisted that due to the lack of state resources, payments to contracting companies are made gradually because the payments for the 1,400 contracts cannot be disbursed every month. This is, he added, part of his powers as president, although he did not specify an article of law that would allow for regulating a specific payment mechanism.
“As everyone could not be paid at the same time because there were no funds to carry out such an operation, the payments were to be phased in so that there would be no repetition of this. It is an eminently technical, regular and routine agreement within the State,” he said.
He also recalled other conditions that companies must meet, such as progress in the work and budget, supervision of the projects and that they were “contracts that did not have corruption problems.”
Arévalo defended the decision by saying that it was taken so that all contractors would receive payments gradually and not continue with the dynamic of the previous government, which, he said, was based on bribes.
Last Sunday, Ricardo Méndez Ruiz, from the Foundation against Terrorism, announced that he filed a complaint against Arévalo for abuse of authority, influence peddling and failure to fulfill duties, in reference to the aforementioned payment mechanism.
“This is a consequence of the alleged payment mechanism due to which the former Minister of Communications, architect Jazmín de la Vega, was dismissed, because she refused to pay the builders to whom Bernardo Arévalo intended to make the payments since they had been financiers of his campaign,” Mendéz said in an audiovisual on his social networks.
He also published the list of companies to which payments were owed, with the president’s signature, and the phone call through which he dismissed De la Vega. Both details were confirmed by the president.
“The former minister De la Vega did not have the qualities in terms of trust,” argued Arévalo, criticizing her for having recorded and published that call.
Recommended by sectors
Arévalo was questioned about who recommended De la Vega for the post, because he repeatedly stated that he did not have the qualities of trust. He responded that during the transition a list of people suggested by various sectors was received and subjected to analysis.
“De la Vega was on a list of people who were proposed by different sectors and different sources and were subject to a review by a commission that tried to identify their qualities and qualifications. The review did indeed yield a positive result, so we had a conversation with her from which the decision was made to appoint her as minister. Unfortunately, her conduct showed that she was very far from what was found in the documentary review,” he said.
The call
In recent days, an audio recording of the call in which Arévalo informed De la Vega about her dismissal has been circulated. In the audio, the president tells her that the decision is due to the payments she authorized. He also told her that he would send the notification to her home.
“…they are not on a list authorized by me. That constitutes a serious offense and I regret having to do so, Minister, I have thought about it a lot, but you do not leave me an option at this moment,” Arévalo is heard saying.
The former minister responded that she applied the mechanism that seemed best to her at that time and that she had no interest in deviating from the execution of the CIV projects.
“I’m just telling you that I didn’t act against your orders, but rather according to the criteria that I considered to be the best,” De la Vega responded.
Arévalo said goodbye with a “thank you for your service during these months and I am sorry that this has come to an end and I remain at your disposal” and the recording ends.
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