Guatemala President Otto Pérez Molina, who has been implicated in a massive corruption scandal that has shaken his administration, has been stripped of his immunity and barred from leaving his country.

In a vote that was 132-0, Congress endorsed an unprecedented move to strip Pérez Molina of his immunity. The president now faces prosecution in an investigation that has already led to the arrest of former Vice President Roxana Baldetti, who stepped down from office in May.

Crowds that had gathered outside Congress shouted, “Yes, we could!” after receiving the news of their leader’s fate.

As previously reported, this past weekend thousands of demonstrators demanded Pérez Molina’s resignation. The protests started in April.

As reported by CNN, the Guatemalan Attorney General's Office and a U.N. investigating commission claimed Pérez Molina, along with a group of aides in his administration, received bribes in exchange for lowering taxes for companies hoping to import products into Guatemala.

The president denied the charges on national TV, saying, "I categorically deny and reject the accusation that I was involved (in a corruption scheme) and having received any money from that customs fraud scheme."

César Calderón, the president’s lawyer spoke to CNN en Español about his client’s cooperation, saying, "The president has not run away, has not hidden, will not flee and will not seek asylum."

Adriana Beltrán, a senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America spoke to The New York Times about the symbolic significance of the president being stripped of his immunity.

“It sends a very powerful message both to Guatemalans and to other countries in the region,” Beltrán said, “that the justice system can be made to work, even against those that have been historically deemed untouchable. That you can have the rule of law and respect due process and human rights.”

All of this political drama has occurred as the nation prepares to hold presidential elections on Sunday.