Guatemala's Perez says Biden forced him to accept anti-corruption purge

[Little Tich]

Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala's jailed former president, Otto Perez, says he regrets bowing to U.S. pressure to extend the work of an anti-corruption unit that then toppled him from power and that it was U.S. Vice President Joe Biden who forced his hand.

Perez resigned and was arrested last month after Guatemala's attorney general and the U.N.-backed anti-corruption body accused him of leading a customs racket.

In a series of meetings earlier this year, U.S. officials pressured Perez to fire corrupt officials and allow the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) to continue its work, officials with direct knowledge of the talks have told Reuters.

Renewing the CICIG´s mandate "was one of the things I must regret," Perez told Reuters on Saturday at the military prison where he is being held awaiting trial. He maintains he is innocent of the charges against him.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/guatemalas-perez-says-biden-forced-him-accept-anti-203345718.html

[DRoseDARs]

1. The poor dear... n/t

[geek tragedy]

2. Great work by Biden. nt

[Judi Lynn]

3. Otto Perez led his troops to commit genocide against so many Mayan people in Guatemala,

it would be impossible to take his word for anything. Not in this lifetime, nor any other.

How on earth could his comments regarding anyone be of value?

Unfortunately for so many tortured and exterminated Guatemalan people, the U.S. fully supported, encouraged, financed the right-wing war on Guatemalan impoverished, and indigenous human beings, members of the "not so lucky Guatemalan sperm club."

Entire villages burned to the ground, after the soldiers tortured, bludgeoned, mutilated, terrorized the people who lived there, and destroyed all their crops and animals.

[center]











People carrying remains of their loved ones retrieved from a mass grave after a massacre.

[/center]

[dembotoz]

4. cheney would have just suggested more death squads

[bemildred]

5. No joke: Guatemalan comedian wins presidency in landslide

Jimmy Morales, a former TV comedian who has never held office, swept to power in Guatemala's presidential election on Sunday after milking public anger over a corruption scandal that deepened distrust of the country's political establishment.

The 46-year-old Morales overwhelmingly beat center-left rival and former first lady Sandra Torres in a run-off vote despite his lack of government experience and some policy ideas that strike many as eccentric.

The headquarters of Morales' center-right National Convergence Front (FCN) party erupted in celebration as official returns showed he had around 68 percent support in a landslide victory.

Voters pointed to widespread discontent with Guatemala's political class, compounded by a U.N.-backed investigation into a multi-million dollar customs racket that led last month to the resignation and arrest of former president Otto Perez.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/26/us-guatemala-election-idUSKCN0SJ04G20151026

[Judi Lynn]

6. Sad. The right-wing clown doesn't have much respect for Guatemala's poor. Bad choice.

Some people may have voted for him thinking he couldn't be worse than the Otto Perez, whose grotesque treatment of innocent Mayan villagers should have sent him to jail, instead of the Presidential Palace.

Morales simply claims he's not the criminal Perez was and that seems to have persuaded enough of his fellow right-wingers to elect him.

[Sunlei]

7. Biden did a great job down there. The UN anti corruption body worked all year & last month,

arrested Perez.

This grew from the floods of refugees, mostly woman & children at our borders last year. Some were really fleeing violence. Biden went down there and was part of those meetings with leaders in the countries south of us and also worked with these international groups.