The call of the Attorney General and head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP), María Consuelo Porras, was attended this afternoon by representatives of 12 of the 16 benches represented in the Congress of the Republic: Cabal, Viva, Valor, Todos, Nosotros, Unionistas, Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE), Vamos, Cambios, Elefante, Creo and Azul.
This is the second meeting that the congressmen have attended in a year. The first was on February 24. On that occasion, Porras shared the work that the institution does with the legislators.
According to a statement issued at that time by the MP, reference was made to Resolution Point 6-2024, which exposes the situation of Guatemalans who are victims of usury and fraud.
According to the deputy of the Nosotros party, Nadia Torres, the meeting on August 26 was to follow up on the first meeting “it was a matter of usury and fraud, they explained to us the way in which the prosecution is expanding throughout the country.”
The representative of the Cambio bench, Esduin Javier, indicated that the specific topics discussed at the meeting were “usury, fraud and extortion.” The congressman explained that he presented to the head of the MP the progress of the initiative of law of reforms to the Penal Code, this in order to toughen the penalties for those who engage in these crimes.
The message
The deputies consulted indicated that three blocks were the only ones that did not attend the meeting: Winaq, Victoria and Bien. Although the entire meeting was recorded, as confirmed by several legislators, there was also a personal moment with some deputies to find out what opinion they had of it – Attorney General of the MP, María Consuelo Porras -.
15 days ago, after the approval of Decree 16-2024, the Budget Expansion Law, it was announced that the necessary votes existed to reform the Organic Law of the Public Ministry. Sources confirmed that on Monday there were two meetings, one to discuss the issues of crimes and the other was to “take the temperature with representatives of large parties in the MP.”
The pre-agreement is that the deputies’ position is that both Arévalo and Consuelo must complete their mandate. Esduin Javier Javier indicated that, in the “Congress anything can happen”, this when asked if the changes to the Organic Law of the MP were discussed.
Torres did not admit that there was talk about the reforms to the MP, but said “everyone spoke in support of the work of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.”
The deputy of the Cabal bench, Luis Aguirre, said that the prosecutor “only showed results” and that it was an informative meeting. In relation to the conflict that exists between the MP and President Bernardo Arévalo, he limited himself to declaring “they have to look for channels of communication.”
Regarding the proposed reforms to the MP, he simply stated that “it is not a topic of conversation.”
Cooperation
In a statement, the MP indicated that the objective of the meeting was to inform the heads and deputy heads of the benches about the fight against the crime of fraud. “Among the advances achieved, the Attorney General’s team mentioned that the Criminal Analysis Directorate has carried out comprehensive studies on the criminal phenomenon and mainly on the crimes that are committed when people are defrauded.”
The document adds that Secretary General Angel Pineda said that for the MP it is important to have spaces for cooperation and coordination between the research institution and the Congress of the Republic.
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