GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala’s attorney general on Saturday brought corruption charges against five former ministers who served in the government of Otto Pérez, a former president impeached and arrested for suspected graft last year.
The five are accused of money laundering and unlawful association to buy gifts for Pérez and ex-vice president Roxana Baldetti through an aide, said Iván Velásquez, head of a local U.N.-backed anti-corruption body known as the CICIG.
The announcement was made in a joint news conference by Guatemala’s attorney general, Thelma Aldana, and the CICIG, who worked together to build a case against Pérez last year.
Police detained two of the five officials, ex-defense minister Manuel López Ambrosio and former interior minister Mauricio López Bonilla on Saturday.
Alejandro Sinibaldi, who had the infrastructure job, former energy minister Erick Archila and López Ambrosio’s predecessor at defense, Ulises Anzuelo, are facing arrest.
Only López Bonilla has so far responded to the charges, denying them as he was taken in handcuffs to a courthouse on Saturday.
Velásquez said the five had channeled some $4.5 million in cash to Baldetti’s private secretary, Juan Carlos Monzón, to buy beach houses for Baldetti and Perez, as well as a helicopter and a boat for the former president, a retired general.
Investigators discovered the purchases after raiding Monzón’s offices in April 2015. Monzón was arrested in October and subsequently confirmed the transactions, authorities said.
Velásquez said investigators suspect that the money delivered to Monzón for the gifts was illicit because the sums involved went far beyond the ministers’ salaries or what they had stated in their asset declarations.
“As we see, the objective was to hide the origin and destination of the funds,” Velásquez said, noting the gifts were likely made by the officials to protect their jobs.
Pérez and Baldetti are in prison and on trial for a variety of corruption charges, including bribery. They have both denied any wrongdoing.
SOFÍA MENCHU