Bogota, Colombia – Colombian President Gustavo Petro has criticised a Guatemalan court docket order for the arrests of two senior Colombian officers, accusing the prosecutor’s workplace of being corrupt.
Guatemalan Public Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche on Monday accused Colombian Legal professional Normal Luz Adriana Camargo and former Colombian Defence Minister Ivan Velasquez of corruption, affect peddling, obstruction of justice, and collusion throughout a United Nations-backed Worldwide Fee in opposition to Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) investigation into bribes paid to Guatemalan officers by Brazilian building big Odebrecht.
Petro mentioned on Tuesday that the concentrating on of Camargo and Velasquez was politically motivated and exhibits that the lawyer common’s workplace is “subordinate to the mafia”.
“Narcotrafficking multinationals try to take over authorized authorities and governments to hold out and whitewash their illicit enterprise,” wrote Petro in a submit on X.
In a press release launched on Monday, Guatemala’s authorities additionally mentioned it “emphatically rejects the arrest warrants”.
“These actions are carried out with a transparent political goal, with out grounding within the nationwide and worldwide authorized system,” it mentioned.
Whereas saying the warrants on Monday, Curruchiche alleged with out offering proof that Camargo and Velasquez abused their energy whereas working on the CICIG on the Odebrecht case, an enormous corruption scandal wherein the development agency admitted to bribing officers for public contracts in 10 Latin American nations.
On Tuesday, Curruchiche offered emails, purportedly between Odebrecht staff and Camargo, to reporters that he mentioned show Camargo and Velasquez are responsible, although Al Jazeera couldn’t independently confirm the validity of the emails.
Curruchiche’s workplace first introduced it was investigating Velasquez, who’s presently Colombia’s ambassador to the Holy See, in January 2023 when he was nonetheless minister of defence. From 2013 to 2019, Velasquez oversaw the CICIG, which uncovered a number of corruption networks in Guatemala.
Guatemala’s prosecutor’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Each Camargo and Velasquez have denied the accusations.
“The corrupt Guatemalan Legal professional Normal and her prosecutor Curruchiche – designated as corrupt and sanctioned by the US and the European Union – prolong their persecution to me and Luz Adriana Camargo,” wrote Velasquez in an X submit on Tuesday.
Colombia’s lawyer common additionally rejected the fees in a press convention in Bogota on Wednesday.
“I’m comforted by the tranquility of my innocence within the crimes which were attributed to me by political bias,” mentioned Camargo.
‘Motion as a weapon’
Juanita Goebertus Estrada, director of the Americas Division at Human Rights Watch, informed Al Jazeera that the accusations in opposition to the Colombian officers had been unfounded.
“There isn’t any proof in opposition to Velasquez or Camargo of any credible participation in prison exercise,” she mentioned, including that the warrants had been simply the newest in a sequence of controversial strikes by the workplace of Guatemala’s Legal professional Normal Maria Consuelo Porras, who has confronted worldwide criticism for resisting anti-corruption efforts.
“Consuelo Porras has a horrible report in human rights and democracy. She has continuously used prison motion as a weapon in opposition to those that have tried to combat in opposition to corruption within the nation,” mentioned Goebertus.
Curruchiche was criticised for interfering with elections after his workplace suspended then-candidate Bernardo Arevalo’s get together forward of the presidential run-off in 2023. Arevalo went on to win the elections, assuming workplace in January 2024
Guatemala’s authorities mentioned the arrest warrants are a part of a wider sample of judicial overreach.
“These are a part of a sequence of actions by the Public Prosecutor’s Workplace, the Legal professional Normal of the Republic and judges related to corruption which have distorted the that means of justice in Guatemala,” mentioned the Guatemalan authorities in its assertion on Monday.
Folks maintain a banner with the images of Legal professional Normal Maria Consuelo Porras and Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche throughout a protest in assist of democracy and to demand a peaceable democratic transition of energy, in Guatemala Metropolis, Guatemala, on December 7, 2023 (Cristina Chiquin/Reuters)
Regardless of the arrest orders, it seems unlikely that actions in opposition to the 2 officers will likely be taken outdoors of Guatemala.
“Petro received’t adjust to the arrest warrants … and it is rather possible that he’ll search an injunction to any worldwide discover by Interpol that seeks to do the identical,” Sergio Guzman, director at Colombia Threat Evaluation, a safety suppose tank, informed Al Jazeera.
Nevertheless, Colombian opposition figures have embraced the arrest warrants as proof of corruption within the Petro administration. Vicky Davila, the conservative frontrunner in subsequent 12 months’s presidential elections, promised to adjust to the order.
“On August 7 of subsequent 12 months, we are going to ship them to Guatemala on a industrial flight, handcuffed, as befits extradited individuals, to reply to the justice of that nation for his or her alleged crimes,” wrote Davila in a submit on X on Monday.
