Who Is Alejandro Maldonado? Guatemala Has New Temporary Admiral Afterwards Otto Perez Molina's Resignation, Otto Pérez Molina of Guatemala Is Jailed Hours Afterwards Resigning Presidency - Just hours afterwards abandonment his abandonment as admiral of Guatemala, Otto Pérez Molina was beatific to bastille to anticipate the cessation of a audition analytical his role in a multimillion-dollar community artifice case that has annoyed the nation and beatific reverberations throughout the region.
The accommodation to bastille Mr. Pérez Molina accent the seismic change across-the-board through Guatemala afterwards the bribery accusations in April, and offered a affecting validation of a growing artery affirmation movement ambitious his adjournment and prosecution.
For abundant of Guatemala’s agitated history, apparent by absolutism and aggressive repression, such a arena would acquire been unimaginable: a admiral affected to resign, again sit in accessible cloister to apprehend accuse collapsed adjoin him and ultimately absorb the night in a bastille he already ability acquire overseen as a top general.
All that in the advance of a individual day. Until now, Mr. Pérez Molina had accustomed no adumbration that he would go gently. Over months, artery protests grew to cover tens of bags of citizens ambitious that he footfall down over accusations that he played a above role in a multimillion-dollar artifice scheme. But still, the admiral — who was the military’s adjudicator during talks to end the nation’s blood-soaked 36-year civilian war — denied atrocity and banned to leave office. But just afore midnight on Wednesday, Mr. Pérez Molina filed his resignation, adage he would “face amends and boldness my claimed situation.”
In the attorneys on Thursday, he listened calmly while prosecutors played eavesdrop recordings that they said active him as the baton of a all-inclusive artifice ring. His face abiding in a attending of active composure, the now above admiral took addendum as added than six hours of recordings played afore judges, attorneys and the annual media.
Afterward, he paused to allege with reporters, proclaiming his chastity and accord to face the allegations.
“It’s one affair to acquire but addition affair to investigate,” he said, apropos to the continued day of taped conversations. “All Guatemalans acquire to annual the law, and I assure you I will annual the law and this process.”
When Mr. Pérez Molina larboard the courtroom, he anesthetized a alternation of beef abounding with those accused of getting assemblage associates and others adverse their own hearings. Some of them began catcalling, whistling, throwing up assemblage signs and shouting threats. He maintained the accord he had captivated during the hearing.
Outside, a bashful but celebrating army abounding the city’s axial plaza, the assumption centermost of the beef movement that began 5 months ago. A assemblage of vendors awash beef paraphernalia, hawking whistles, masks and Guatemalan flags for about $5. As a desultory rain fell, the army anesthetized the time the aforementioned way it had for months, with drums, chants and arrant whistles.
The aberration on Thursday was that the babble was characterized by celebration, not the abuse that had fueled it for months. The protesters’ ambition of bringing down the admiral accomplished, the tenor was easygoing, even a allotment of the police. Where afore hundreds of admiral lined the ambit of the plaza, on top alert, the accidental there on Thursday appeared relaxed, even relieved, at the contest transpiring afore them.
“The able of this country never agitated to lift humans from the street,” said Cifuentes Arreaga Sergio, a 20-year adept of the civic civilian police, who was stationed forth the accomplish of the ample Palacio Nacional.
Ignoring the casual access of armament and the cacophony nearby, he betrayed a smile. “This was the abandoned affair that the ability of the accompaniment was traveling to acknowledge to,” he said.
Mr. Pérez Molina was beatific to Matamoros prison, which is on a aggressive abject in axial Guatemala City.
His carnality president, Alejandro Maldonado, was affidavit in as admiral on Thursday afternoon, afterwards Congress voted to acquire the resignation. Mr. Maldonado accepted the resignations of top government officials, admitting abounding had already stepped down. His appellation will end in January, with the commencement of the champ of elections that were appointed to activate on Sunday.
Mr. Pérez Molina, 64, is the aboriginal admiral in Guatemalan history to abandon over a bribery scandal, experts said, a arresting aberration in a country continued accepted for the dispensation of its political establishment. And admitting the abridgement in Guatemala has lagged compared with those of added countries in Latin America, Mr. Pérez Molina’s abrupt changeabout of affluence put it durably aural a beachcomber of efforts abroad in the arena to accomplish political systems added accountable.
His acknowledgment to the protests ability itself be a arresting of how abundant Guatemala has entered a new era. Admitting Mr. Pérez Molina, who already ran the military’s feared intelligence operation, deeply disqualified out abandonment until the actual end, his government never resorted to the array of acrid measures that artlessly met accessible dissent.
Yet above questions loom. Afore the awe-inspiring claiming of transitioning from a arrangement of dispensation to one added acknowledging to its humans lies a added actual one: Sunday’s election.
Mr. Pérez Molina’s abrupt abandonment leaves about no time to achieve austere reforms afore the alteration of power. And the candidates for admiral were fielded in a apple fundamentally altered from the one that Guatemalans awoke to on Thursday.
“At their finest moment, Guatemalans are faced with this absolutely difficult best amid candidates who may not advance to the kinds of changes that humans acquire been angry for,” said Eric L. Olson, a academic at the Mexico Institute of the Wilson Center. Not all Guatemalans afraid about the next steps. Indeed, the protesters seemed to acquire a array of bliss apparent by the acceptance that admitting they did not apperceive their absolute location, they were on the alley to abiding change.
“We acquire humans with accommodation who can advance in these elections,” said Juan Gabon Villanueva, 56. “And if they’re corrupt, they will acquire to change their behavior.”
The political amusement in Guatemala are allotment of a broader movement beyond Latin America, with depression bidding through boundless protests in Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and elsewhere.
Yet accustomed Guatemala’s adverse history, the accouterment actuality were already getting apparent as a affecting archetype of a transformation fabricated adjoin continued odds. In adjoining Honduras, for instance, ample demonstrations acquire aswell afire a agitation about whether to accept a archetypal agnate to Guatemala’s, in which an all-embracing aggregation of board was deployed to bolster the nation’s law administration capacity.
Protesters reacted initially to the artifice scandal, in which millions of dollars were said to acquire been siphoned from community acquirement and contracts, but they aswell bidding abysmal frustrations over longstanding grievances: hospitals that ran out of medicine, ascent crime, and badge armament that sometimes did not even acquire abundant ammunition to address to abomination scenes.
The alternation of inquiries that afire the public’s acerbity were the plan of an aberrant accord of bounded prosecutors and board backed by the United Nations, accepted as the All-embracing Agency Adjoin Dispensation in Guatemala or by its Spanish-language acronym, Cicig.
Established in 2007 to advice betrayal the ties amid bent networks and politicians, the agency eventually emboldened the nation’s own prosecutors to authority the aristocratic to account, and become a antecedent of afflatus for abounding Guatemalans. For abundant of its history, Guatemalan association has been divided, its altered constituencies angry their battles alone. The nation’s aboriginal population, which suffered the a lot of beneath the civilian war, which dead about 200,000 people, has continued struggled for according rights with little success.
Yet the movement that began in April artificial an aberrant accord of altered groups. Guatemala City’s average class, continued afraid to allege out, began abutting armament with barbarian and aboriginal groups. Eventually, the nation’s abbey and business leaders aswell took the ancillary of the protesters to appeal change.
None of the candidates in the acclamation had been accepted to win 50 percent or added of the vote, authoritative it acceptable that a runoff, tentatively appointed for Oct. 25, would be necessary.
Protesters, however, acquire not been blessed about their choices. The arch candidate, Manuel Baldizón, a businessman, is broadly apparent as allotment of the discredited political system. His vice-presidential applicant faces accuse in a abstracted bribery case, and Mr. Baldizón’s affair had maintained a abutting accord with Mr. Pérez Molina and his party.
The added arch candidates are Jimmy Morales, a comedian, and Sandra Torres, a above aboriginal lady.
The antipathy for the political options was apparent a allotment of protesters who aggregate in the rain on Thursday. Some captivated signs address the name of the arch affair upside down with a carve through it.
“We don’t wish to chase the aisle created by the institutions that are controlled by the humans we are aggravating to get rid of,” said Javier Gramajo Lopez, an aboriginal organizer of the protests. “If Maldonado doesn’t apprehend the things we are saying, we will advance him out too.”
The accommodation to bastille Mr. Pérez Molina accent the seismic change across-the-board through Guatemala afterwards the bribery accusations in April, and offered a affecting validation of a growing artery affirmation movement ambitious his adjournment and prosecution.
All that in the advance of a individual day. Until now, Mr. Pérez Molina had accustomed no adumbration that he would go gently. Over months, artery protests grew to cover tens of bags of citizens ambitious that he footfall down over accusations that he played a above role in a multimillion-dollar artifice scheme. But still, the admiral — who was the military’s adjudicator during talks to end the nation’s blood-soaked 36-year civilian war — denied atrocity and banned to leave office. But just afore midnight on Wednesday, Mr. Pérez Molina filed his resignation, adage he would “face amends and boldness my claimed situation.”
In the attorneys on Thursday, he listened calmly while prosecutors played eavesdrop recordings that they said active him as the baton of a all-inclusive artifice ring. His face abiding in a attending of active composure, the now above admiral took addendum as added than six hours of recordings played afore judges, attorneys and the annual media.
Afterward, he paused to allege with reporters, proclaiming his chastity and accord to face the allegations.
“It’s one affair to acquire but addition affair to investigate,” he said, apropos to the continued day of taped conversations. “All Guatemalans acquire to annual the law, and I assure you I will annual the law and this process.”
When Mr. Pérez Molina larboard the courtroom, he anesthetized a alternation of beef abounding with those accused of getting assemblage associates and others adverse their own hearings. Some of them began catcalling, whistling, throwing up assemblage signs and shouting threats. He maintained the accord he had captivated during the hearing.
Outside, a bashful but celebrating army abounding the city’s axial plaza, the assumption centermost of the beef movement that began 5 months ago. A assemblage of vendors awash beef paraphernalia, hawking whistles, masks and Guatemalan flags for about $5. As a desultory rain fell, the army anesthetized the time the aforementioned way it had for months, with drums, chants and arrant whistles.
The aberration on Thursday was that the babble was characterized by celebration, not the abuse that had fueled it for months. The protesters’ ambition of bringing down the admiral accomplished, the tenor was easygoing, even a allotment of the police. Where afore hundreds of admiral lined the ambit of the plaza, on top alert, the accidental there on Thursday appeared relaxed, even relieved, at the contest transpiring afore them.
“The able of this country never agitated to lift humans from the street,” said Cifuentes Arreaga Sergio, a 20-year adept of the civic civilian police, who was stationed forth the accomplish of the ample Palacio Nacional.
Ignoring the casual access of armament and the cacophony nearby, he betrayed a smile. “This was the abandoned affair that the ability of the accompaniment was traveling to acknowledge to,” he said.
Mr. Pérez Molina was beatific to Matamoros prison, which is on a aggressive abject in axial Guatemala City.
His carnality president, Alejandro Maldonado, was affidavit in as admiral on Thursday afternoon, afterwards Congress voted to acquire the resignation. Mr. Maldonado accepted the resignations of top government officials, admitting abounding had already stepped down. His appellation will end in January, with the commencement of the champ of elections that were appointed to activate on Sunday.
Mr. Pérez Molina, 64, is the aboriginal admiral in Guatemalan history to abandon over a bribery scandal, experts said, a arresting aberration in a country continued accepted for the dispensation of its political establishment. And admitting the abridgement in Guatemala has lagged compared with those of added countries in Latin America, Mr. Pérez Molina’s abrupt changeabout of affluence put it durably aural a beachcomber of efforts abroad in the arena to accomplish political systems added accountable.
His acknowledgment to the protests ability itself be a arresting of how abundant Guatemala has entered a new era. Admitting Mr. Pérez Molina, who already ran the military’s feared intelligence operation, deeply disqualified out abandonment until the actual end, his government never resorted to the array of acrid measures that artlessly met accessible dissent.
Yet above questions loom. Afore the awe-inspiring claiming of transitioning from a arrangement of dispensation to one added acknowledging to its humans lies a added actual one: Sunday’s election.
Mr. Pérez Molina’s abrupt abandonment leaves about no time to achieve austere reforms afore the alteration of power. And the candidates for admiral were fielded in a apple fundamentally altered from the one that Guatemalans awoke to on Thursday.
“At their finest moment, Guatemalans are faced with this absolutely difficult best amid candidates who may not advance to the kinds of changes that humans acquire been angry for,” said Eric L. Olson, a academic at the Mexico Institute of the Wilson Center. Not all Guatemalans afraid about the next steps. Indeed, the protesters seemed to acquire a array of bliss apparent by the acceptance that admitting they did not apperceive their absolute location, they were on the alley to abiding change.
“We acquire humans with accommodation who can advance in these elections,” said Juan Gabon Villanueva, 56. “And if they’re corrupt, they will acquire to change their behavior.”
The political amusement in Guatemala are allotment of a broader movement beyond Latin America, with depression bidding through boundless protests in Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and elsewhere.
Yet accustomed Guatemala’s adverse history, the accouterment actuality were already getting apparent as a affecting archetype of a transformation fabricated adjoin continued odds. In adjoining Honduras, for instance, ample demonstrations acquire aswell afire a agitation about whether to accept a archetypal agnate to Guatemala’s, in which an all-embracing aggregation of board was deployed to bolster the nation’s law administration capacity.
Protesters reacted initially to the artifice scandal, in which millions of dollars were said to acquire been siphoned from community acquirement and contracts, but they aswell bidding abysmal frustrations over longstanding grievances: hospitals that ran out of medicine, ascent crime, and badge armament that sometimes did not even acquire abundant ammunition to address to abomination scenes.
The alternation of inquiries that afire the public’s acerbity were the plan of an aberrant accord of bounded prosecutors and board backed by the United Nations, accepted as the All-embracing Agency Adjoin Dispensation in Guatemala or by its Spanish-language acronym, Cicig.
Established in 2007 to advice betrayal the ties amid bent networks and politicians, the agency eventually emboldened the nation’s own prosecutors to authority the aristocratic to account, and become a antecedent of afflatus for abounding Guatemalans. For abundant of its history, Guatemalan association has been divided, its altered constituencies angry their battles alone. The nation’s aboriginal population, which suffered the a lot of beneath the civilian war, which dead about 200,000 people, has continued struggled for according rights with little success.
Yet the movement that began in April artificial an aberrant accord of altered groups. Guatemala City’s average class, continued afraid to allege out, began abutting armament with barbarian and aboriginal groups. Eventually, the nation’s abbey and business leaders aswell took the ancillary of the protesters to appeal change.
None of the candidates in the acclamation had been accepted to win 50 percent or added of the vote, authoritative it acceptable that a runoff, tentatively appointed for Oct. 25, would be necessary.
Protesters, however, acquire not been blessed about their choices. The arch candidate, Manuel Baldizón, a businessman, is broadly apparent as allotment of the discredited political system. His vice-presidential applicant faces accuse in a abstracted bribery case, and Mr. Baldizón’s affair had maintained a abutting accord with Mr. Pérez Molina and his party.
The added arch candidates are Jimmy Morales, a comedian, and Sandra Torres, a above aboriginal lady.
The antipathy for the political options was apparent a allotment of protesters who aggregate in the rain on Thursday. Some captivated signs address the name of the arch affair upside down with a carve through it.
“We don’t wish to chase the aisle created by the institutions that are controlled by the humans we are aggravating to get rid of,” said Javier Gramajo Lopez, an aboriginal organizer of the protests. “If Maldonado doesn’t apprehend the things we are saying, we will advance him out too.”
Blogger Comment
Facebook Comment