Graft panel’s end riles Guatemalans

GUATEMALA CITY — Thousands marched Thursday to protest President Jimmy Morales’ decision to end the work of a U.N. anti-corruption commission that has helped lead high-profile graft probes targeting dozens of powerful Guatemalans, including one involving Morales.

Students, farmers, clerics, academics and others turned out in the streets of Guatemala City as well as plazas and highways outside the capital to demand Morales allow the commission, known as CICIG for its initials in Spanish, to stay.

“Jimmy and Sandra” — a reference to Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel — “resign, because you are part of the mafia,” read some banners.

Morales announced at the end of August that he would not renew the mandate of the commission for another two-year term, giving it until the end of its current mandate next September to wind down its activities and transfer them to Guatemalan institutions.

He then barred commission chief Ivan Velasquez, a Colombian national, from returning to Guatemala from a work trip to the United States. The Constitutional Court has overruled that decision, but it was not immediately clear whether he would be able to return.

Also Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated during a news conference that Velasquez enjoys his full confidence and he sees no reason for that to change.