Guatemala Congress committee recommends ending Perez's immunity
Sat Jul 4, 2015 1:44am BST
Guatemala Congress committee recommends ending Perez's immunity
GUATEMALA CITY | By Sofia Menchu
A Guatemalan congressional committee on Friday recommended President Otto Perez be stripped of his immunity from prosecution to face investigation over corruption scandals that have rocked his administration.
"We recommend that the investigating authority should be the one to determine whether there is any responsibility on the part of Perez," said opposition congressman Hugo Fernando Garcia, secretary of the committee looking into the matter.
A full vote in Congress on whether to remove the president's immunity is due next week. To do so, the opposition needs a two-thirds majority. If reached, it would then be up to the public prosecutor's office to probe whether Perez was at fault.
Perez's right-wing Patriot Party has only 33 of 158 seats in Congress, and needs 54 votes to protect his immunity.
More:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/07/04/uk-guatemala-corruption-idUKKCN0PE00H20150704?rpc=401
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From Perez' Wikipedia:
More:Accusations of human rights abuses[edit]
Genocide involvement, deportations and torture participation[edit]
In 2011 reports were made, based on United States' National Security Archives, that Pérez carried out the scorched earth campaigns of the 1980s under the military dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. At that time, up to 250,000 indigenous mayan peasants were killed in a 16 months period by the Guatemalan military. Widespread genocidal rape and other mass sexual violences as well as cultural destruction were common.[13] Pérez commanded a counterinsurgency team in the Ixil Community in 1982-3, and razed 80-90% of the villages. At least 184 civilians were killed or disappeared under his authority.[14][15][16]
In July 2011, the indigenous organization Waqib Kej presented a letter to the United Nations accusing Pérez of involvement in genocide and torture committed in Quiché during the civil war.[17][18][19] Among other evidence, they cited a 1982 documentary in which a military officer whom they claim is Pérez is seen near four dead bodies. In the following scene, a subordinate says that those four were captured alive and taken "to the Major" (allegedly Pérez) and that "they wouldn't talk, not when we asked nicely and not when we were mean (ni por las buenas ni por las malas)."[20]
Pérez denied his involvement in any atrocities. "I have nothing to hide," he told Reuters. He said he was proud of his role in the civil war.[14] Pérez has never been charged with any human rights violations. In 2011, he became the subject of a new investigation into the disappearance in 1992 of the guerilla commander Efraín Bámaca, an effort led by Guatemala's top prosecutor.[21]
Allegations of involvement in the killing of Efraín Bámaca[edit]
In 1992 the guerrilla leader Efraín Bámaca Velásquez disappeared. Investigations led by his wife, American lawyer Jennifer Harbury, suggest that Pérez, who was Director of Military Intelligence at the time, probably issued the orders to detain and torture the commandante.[22][23][24]
Hearings held by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights revealed that on March 12, 1992, the local Guatemalan army captured Efraín Bámaca alive; that the army had secretly detained and tortured Bámaca for over a year before killing him in September 1993 without trial; and that his torturers and killers were paid CIA informants.[25][26]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_P%C3%A9rez_Molina
