Guatemala’s president plunges into constitutional crisis

Two days after prosecutors announced they would seek to lift Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales’ immunity, he ordered the expulsion of the head of a highly praised UN anti-corruption commission and plunged into a faceoff with the nation’s top court and the international community.

It was a stunning reversal for a president whose predecessor had been forced to resign by the same body’s investigation two years earlier and who campaigned as the panel’s biggest advocate. “Neither corrupt nor a crook” was Morales’ campaign slogan.

What changed after the television comedian took office in January 2016 was that the UN commission and the aggressive Guatemalan prosecutors it has helped train turned their sights on him and allegations of illegal campaign financing.

Morales has strenuously denied any wrongdoing, and rumours swirled last week that Morales’ visit to UN headquarters in New York was aimed at getting rid of the commission’s head, Ivan Velasquez.

On Friday afternoon, Velasquez stood beside chief prosecutor Thelma Aldana to announce that they were asking a court to start the process for removing Morales’ immunity from prosecution, a move that would eventually need the support of Congress.

Morales’ response “is based on his own personal interest,” said Jo-Marie Burt, a senior fellow with the Washington Office on Latin America and a professor in the school of public policy and government at George Mason University.

His order quickly was blocked by Guatemala’s constitutional Court, which temporarily suspended the expulsion while it studies the case, based on arguments that Morales had a fundamental conflict of interest.