The State Division stated on Wednesday that Alejandro Giammattei, Guatemala’s president till a tumultuous switch of energy this week, was barred from getting into the US due to what officers stated was info indicating that he had accepted bribes.
The announcement signaled that the US was transferring shortly to assist the anticorruption drive led by Guatemala’s new president, Bernardo Arévalo. Guatemala was lately engulfed in protests over makes an attempt to forestall Mr. Arévalo from taking workplace, and Mr. Giammattei refused to seem at his successor’s inauguration on Monday.
“Nobody, particularly a public official, is above the legislation,” stated Brian Nichols, the highest State Division official for the Western Hemisphere.
The Treasury Division additionally introduced sanctions on Wednesday in opposition to Alberto Pimentel Mata, a former vitality minister in Mr. Giammattei’s authorities, in connection to Mr. Pimentel Mata’s taking bribes and his involvement in quite a few corruption schemes associated to authorities contracts and licenses, officers stated.
Final weekend, U.S. Customs and Border Safety denied entry in Miami to one in all Mr. Giammattei’s sons, and expelled him on Monday, in accordance to Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah and a supporter of Mr. Giammattei.
Taken collectively, the strikes mirror how the US authorities is making an attempt to stem corruption and impunity in Guatemala, Central America’s most populous nation.
Whereas Mr. Giammattei was president, from 2020 to 2024, an alliance of prosecutors, judges, members of Congress and different political figures retaliated in opposition to officers concerned in a pioneering United Nations-backed anticorruption initiative.
“The State Division has credible info indicating that Giammattei accepted bribes in trade for the efficiency of his public features throughout his tenure as president,” Matthew Miller, a State Division spokesman, stated in a press release.
The previous president is now “typically ineligible” to enter the US, Mr. Miller added, although he didn’t present particular details about the bribes Mr. Giammattei was accused of accepting.
The previous president was not instantly out there for remark.
Accounts of Mr. Giammattei’s involvement in corruption schemes have been circulating for years in Guatemala. In 2021, prosecutors opened an investigation into claims that Russian residents paid a bribe to Mr. Giammattei in connection to a mining mission, after an anticorruption prosecutor obtained testimony from a witness who stated he had gone to Mr. Giammattei’s residence and delivered a rolled-up carpet full of money.
Whereas in workplace, Mr. Giammattei denied he had been bribed in relation to the Russian mission.
Inquiries into these claims didn’t advance a lot in Guatemala’s opaque judicial system. Within the case involving the carpet full of money, the prosecutor wanting into the matter was fired and compelled into exile in the US.
The State Division designation of Mr. Giammattei comes amid different American efforts to counter criminality by political leaders in Central America. The US in 2022 extradited Juan Orlando Hernández, a former president of Honduras, to face drug-trafficking expenses in New York.
Mr. Giammattei, who embraces staunchly conservative insurance policies, is seen as an ally amongst some political figures in the US, similar to Mr. Lee and Richard Grenell, a former ambassador to Germany through the Trump administration, who visited Guatemala final week in a present of assist for Mr. Giammattei.
The US introduced sanctions final month in opposition to Miguel Martínez, one in all Mr. Giammattei’s closest associates, along with visa restrictions on almost 300 Guatemalan residents, together with greater than 100 members of Congress, for his or her efforts to weaken Mr. Arévalo and maintain him from being inaugurated.
Former presidents in Central America typically acquire immunity from prosecution within the area by being sworn in as members of the Central American Parliament. However that immunity doesn’t prolong to the U.S. authorized system or to involvement in violating American legal guidelines. Mr. Giammattei joined the Central American Parliament shortly after his time period expired.
Jody García contributed reporting from Guatemala Metropolis.
