MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Guatemalan authorities have corruption evidence against former President Giammatei

However, the former head of state has immunity as a member of the Central American Parliament

Guatemalan authorities found enough evidence to indict former President Alejandro Giammattei for corruption in the so-called “Red Q” case. However, the Attorney General's Office should request Giammatei's immunity lifted before proceeding any further with the “abuse of authority” and “influence peddling” charges in a case of hiring an official who was later sanctioned by the United States, namely the former director of the National Electrification Institute Melvin Quijivix Vega.

The presidential commissioner against corruption, Julio Flores, assured that the Public Prosecutor's Office should request the withdrawal of immunity of former president Giammattei as deputy of the Central American Parliament and thus stand trial.

Quijivix Vega allegedly received around US$ 105,000 between 2021 and 2023 as an alleged worker of another state entity, authorized by Giammattei, for no actual services rendered.

According to Planning and Programming Secretary Carlos Mendoza, Quijivix Vega had a job in the Presidency's Planning and Programming Secretariat (Segeplan) without anyone knowing his functions. “His office was simply a warehouse. So all this led us to continue digging deeper into the case,” Mendoza explained.

Quijivix Vega was sanctioned in July 2023 by the US Justice with the withdrawal of his visa and banned from entering the country after being accused of corruption at the head of the National Electrification Institute (Inde). According to the US accusation, Quijivix Vega used his position to favor certain companies with corruptly assigned contracts.

Since his inauguration as president last January, Bernardo Arévalo has presented more than fifty cases of corruption perpetrated by previous governments, especially under Giammattei but also under Jimmy Morales (2016-2020).