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A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 8 January 2019
Guatemala bars entry to UN-sponsored corruption investigator

By SONNY FIGUEROA to power in a landslide 2015
SONIA PEREZ D. vote amid widespread disil-
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — lusionment with Guatema-
Authorities in Guatemala la’s political class.
were holding a member of At the time, Vice President
a U.N.-sponsored anti-cor- Roxana Baldetti and Presi-
ruption commission in the dent Otto Perez Molina had
capital’s airport on Sunday, stepped down from office
refusing him entry to the to face fraud and corrup-
country in an escalation of tion charges.
tensions between the gov- The evangelical Christian’s
ernment and the commis- administration, however,
sion. has also been dogged by
Colombian national Yilen accusations of corruption
Osorio was detained by and money laundering.
Guatemalan immigration The U.N.-sponsored CICIG
officials upon arrival at the has operated for more
airport Saturday afternoon. than a decade in Guate-
The move comes despite a mala, pressing charges in
court ruling that Guatema- corruption cases that have
la must grant visas and en- implicated more than 600
try to members of the com- people.
mission known as CICIG, Morales refused to renew
which has investigated top People rally to show support for the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala CICIG’s mandate in the
members of Guatemala’s (CICIG) outside La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. country early last year, and
government, as well as Associated Press then barred its chief from
President Jimmy Morales’ rested for refusing to allow out of a possible four-year Guatemalan human rights returning to Guatemala
son and his brother. They Osorio through. term as president. There activist. “CICIG is just an from a business trip to the
deny accusations of cor- There was no immediate are no re-elections for pres- excuse for what they want; United States.
ruption. comment on the standoff ident in Guatemala. they have co-opted vari- In October, the commission
Guatemala’s attorney gen- from the president’s office. Elections are due this year, ous institutions.” said the government de-
eral sent more than 30 rep- Osorio heads an investiga- and some worry that Mo- Nobel Peace Prize winner nied visas for 11 of its inves-
resentatives and security tion of alleged bribery im- rales wants to extend his and indigenous rights ac- tigators.
personnel to the airport to plicating the vice president rule. tivist Rigoberta Menchu Then, in December, the For-
protect Osorio. Meanwhile, of congress and others. He Morales has stated that he accused the executive eign Ministry withdrew the
civic groups protested his also participated in a cam- would like to remain in of- branch of embodying cor- investigators’ diplomatic
detention outside the air- paign finance investigation fice, arguing that little can ruption and impunity. “We immunity and gave them
port, where more than into the dealings of Mo- be done in four years. can’t allow this setback,” 72 hours to leave the coun-
100 police were standing rales’ political party. “What’s in play is elec- she said. try. However, three days
guard. On Sunday, two im- Morales, 49, has been in of- tions to remain in power,” Morales, formerly a come- later a court ordered the
migration officials were ar- fice for nearly three years warned Helen Mack, a dic actor on television, rose visas to be issued.q

Mexico defends hands-off stance on Venezuela

Associated Press it is a return to the non-in- ting involved in Mexico’s
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexi- tervention policy Mexico internal affairs.”
can President Andres practiced from the 1960s “For me the best foreign
Manuel Lopez Obrador — when it resisted U.S. pres- policy is domestic policy,”
defended his administra- sure to condemn or isolate Lopez Obrador said. “This
tion’s hands-off policy on Cuba — until 2000, when doesn’t just apply to Ven-
Venezuela Monday, say- the conservative Nation- ezuela’s case.”
ing it marked a return to al Action Party began a Lopez Obrador may be po-
the country’s longstanding adopt a more activist, U.S.- sitioning Mexico to serve as
policy of non-intervention. allied stance in foreign af- a trusted mediator in any
Lopez Obrador’s new ad- fairs. In Lima, Peru on Friday, possible negotiated solu-
ministration has reversed a dozen Latin American tion to Venezuela’s crisis.
years of Mexican pressure governments and Canada Raul Benitez, a security ex-
on Venezuela, refusing to questioned the legitimacy pert and professor at the
sign a Lima Group declara- of Maduro’s soon-to-begin National Autonomous Uni-
tion Friday urging Venezue- Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during second term and urged versity of Mexico, said for-
lan President Nicolas Mad- the presentation of his new economic program for the northern him to hand over power to eign policy has been an
uro not to assume power border zone, in Tijuana, Mexico, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. restore democracy in his area Lopez Obrador has
for a second term. Associated Press crisis-wracked South Ameri- shown talent in, and the
The new policy is not with- hadn’t taken a position on polemics, but it should be can country. Mexican leader braved
out its critics. On Friday a Venezuela. understood that this is not Lopez Obrador said Mon- criticism by inviting Maduro
Colombian woman ap- “I don’t get involved in oth- an issue of political sympa- day that Mexico “can- to his Dec. 1 inauguration.
proached Lopez Obrador er countries’ affairs,” Lopez thies.” Some have accused not be getting involved in “Maduro is isolated, and
at an airport — the presi- Obrador answered her. Lopez Obrador, a leftist, of the internal affairs of other Mexico could be a nego-
dent flies commercial class On Monday, he acknowl- sympathizing with Maduro, countries, because we tiator ... because Maduro
on regular flights — and edged that “this is an is- a self-declared socialist. don’t want anybody, any will have confidence in
asked him why Mexico sue that generates a lot of But Lopez Obrador said foreign government, get- him,” Benitez said.q