2024-01-18 03:15:00
Alejandro Giammattei, former president of Guatemala (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
The United States sanctioned former Guatemalan president Alejandro Giammattei (2020-2024) this Wednesday, prohibiting him from entering its territory and accusing him of having participated in corruption during his mandate.
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In a statement, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller assures that the US has “credible information” indicating that the former president “accepted bribes in exchange for the performance of his public duties” during his term, which ended this Sunday with the inauguration of Bernardo Arévalo de León.
Giammattei’s actions, Miller stressed, “undermined the order of law and government transparency” in Guatemala.
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“The United States has made clear that it supports Guatemalans who seek to hold corrupt representatives accountable,” the statement added.
This Wednesday’s measure, the State Department added, also prohibits the former president’s children from entering US soil: Ana Marcela Giammattei, Alejandro Eduardo Giammattei and Stefano Giammattei.
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The decision to sanction the former Guatemalan president comes a few days following the inauguration of Arévalo, who achieved victory with an anti-corruption campaign.
The transfer of power in Guatemala and the previous electoral process was marked by the attempts of the Public Ministry (Prosecutor’s Office) and the previous Congress to hinder the arrival of the new government.
The president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo de León (EFE/ David Toro)
In addition, the US Treasury Department agreed this Wednesday to impose an economic sanction on former Guatemalan Energy Minister Alberto Pimentel, who was part of Giammattei’s cabinet until July of last year.
The United States accused Pimentel of, while in office, having received bribes of more than one million dollars from Guatemalan mining industry groups in exchange for exploitation licenses. According to the US Treasury, Pimentel also used his position within the Government to retaliate once morest those companies that did not agree to give him money.
Pimentel, who left office in July of last year, had already been accused by the US of corruption and in October he was denied entry to the North American country.
“We stand in solidarity with the Guatemalan people in their efforts to foster greater transparency, accountability, and government integrity within their system,” Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson wrote in a statement.
Since 2021, the United States has imposed corruption sanctions on more than 400 Guatemalan individuals and entities, including Attorney General Consuelo Porras.
(With information from EFE)
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