Guatemalan Court Stops Effort to Strip President's Immunity
Last Month Guatemala’s Supreme Court made a ruling that President Otto Perez Molina should be investigated in a corruption probe, requesting that the president's immunity be lifted.
On Thursday Guatemala's constitutional court decided to, for the time being, block this effort to take way President Otto Perez Molina immunity.
As reported by The Associated Press, the court, agreeing to consider arguments over the legitimacy of a congressional panel investigating Perez Molina, acted on a petition from the president himself.
Recently the president has faced intense criticism as his Cabinet has been implicated in a number of corruption scandals.
A customs scandal, in which officials took kickbacks from businesses in exchange for lower import duties, allegedly links Vice President Roxana Baldetti's private secretary to the cause of the corruption. And another scandal involves officials that are said to have been awarded a $15 million contract for kidney treatments to a company that did not in fact have a license to perform the services.
In May, thousands of protesters gathered in the main square of Guatemala's capital to demonstrate against corruption scandals that led to a Cabinet shakeup and the resignation of the vice president.
Many of the protesters were calling for the president to step down as well.
The 64-year-old leader has not been yet been implicated in any scandal and maintains that he has done no wrong.
The president’s time in office has been filled with hopes of great change and mired by disappointment.
He came to his inauguration after announcing that he was in support the decriminalization of marijuana and other illegal drugs, and after taking office his was confronted with governing a nation where, according to Al Jazeera, 54 percent of the population lived in poverty.
Perez Molina is barred from re-election, but the struggling leader has that he will not step before the end of his term.
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