Central America

Guatemala’s anti-corruption commissioner, Santiago Palomo, says that the State is in a “critical” condition

The anti-corruption commissioner of the Government of Guatemala, Santiago Palomo, assures that the first months in office have been “a roller coaster” after having found a State “in critical conditions” in the face of the indications that between 2 billion and 3 billion dollars were embezzled during the presidency of Alejandro Giammattei (2020-2024).

Palomo, a 29-year-old lawyer graduated from Harvard University (USA), said during an interview with EFE that his first months in the position, appointed by the president, Bernardo Arévalo de León, have been “intense” and comparable to “a roller coaster.”

“We are trying to navigate in an Executive body that we receive in critical conditions. We identify a pattern when chatting with the new ministers and secretaries: they describe it as a dead rat in each drawer that is opened. This is how the conditions in which the Government was assumed are defined,” Palomo explains.

According to experts cited by local and international media, the Government of Giammattei could have embezzled up to 3 billion dollars between 2020 and 2024.

Precisely the Corruption Perception Index of 2023 placed Guatemala in 2023 among the five countries with the most embezzlement of state funds. Only behind Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Honduras.

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Commissioner Palomo says that the corruption found operated under the same pattern. “Relevant financial disbursements from 70% to 90%” for the construction of “public works that are being thrown away, such as schools and roads, whose progress does not exceed 30% or 40%.”

According to the official, “this is how these corruption structures worked in the State, right now they are still trying to operate,” the official remarked.

The Government of Arévalo de León denounced Amelia Flores, former Minister of Health of Giammattei, before the courts of justice on April 4, for anomalies in the purchase of 16 million doses of the Russian Sputnik vaccine, in 2021 for a total amount of 615 million quetzals (79 million dollars).

According to various sources, many of the vaccines never reached the Central American country and others expired before their application.

“The case of vaccines shows that they were willing to pursue their own interests to the detriment of the most sacred thing, which was the health of the population, in the midst of a pandemic. It is a case that reflects how unscrupulous the degree of corruption of the previous Administration became,” says Palomo.

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Last week Palomo, along with the Minister of Communications, Jazmín de la Vega, denounced two former officials for a possible fraud in the assignment of contracts to a company for the construction of 14 schools for an amount between 45 and 60 million quetzals (between five and seven million dollars approximately).

The anti-corruption tsar explains that it is up to the Executive Body to detect and prevent cases of corruption from occurring in its Administration. But that is the Public Ministry (Attorney’s Office) that “is responsible for investigating and prosecuting.”

“The Prosecutor’s Office does not have a real commitment to investigate serious cases of corruption,” it is not an ally in the fight against corruption,” which becomes a real challenge, Palomo recognizes, although, he said, the Administration of Arévalo does not intend to stop denouncing the anomalies that are found in the various ministries.

In 2023, the Prosecutor’s Office, led by Consuelo Porras Argueta, tried to stop the electoral victory of Arévalo de León in the general elections through various criminal cases and dozens of governments around the world sanctioned his action, including that of the United States and members of the European Union.

Arévalo de León surprisingly prevailed over the traditional politics of Guatemala thanks to his offer to heal the corruption of the State that has caused a significant democratic deterioration in the last 30 years.

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Palomo concludes that assuming the anti-corruption arm of this Government for the next four years is “a great responsibility.” An “opportunity to improve the dignity of the public service.”

Related Topics:anti-corruption Guatemala Santiago Palomo

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Colombian Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo and current ambassador to the Vatican Iván Velásquez were both members of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, a UN-backed body created to investigate corruption networks within the Guatemalan state between 2007 and 2019.

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