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Guatemalan president resigns amid corruption charges; successor named
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 04 - 09 - 2015

AlQa'dah 19, 1436, September 03, 2015, SPA -- Guatemala's Congress accepted Thursday the
resignation of president Otto Perez, who is facing corruption
charges, and appointed Vice President Alejandro Maldonado to finish
his term that ends in January, according to dpa.
Perez appeared before court on Thursday and heard corruption charges
against him, hours after filing his resignation letter to Congress.
The crisis comes just days before the country's 7.5 million voters
are to elect a new president and vice president, on Sunday.
Congress voted 116 to 0 to appoint Maldonado, with 42 absences.
Perez has been charged with criminal association, corruption and
fraud in connection with a ring that specialized in bringing items
into the country and helping companies avoid millions of dollars in
customs fee in exchange for bribes.
"I decided to undergo due process. My decision was to go to the
courts, so here we are," Perez told reporters as he arrived.
"There are processes that we need to comply with," he said.
Guatemalan prosecutors and a UN commission believe Perez led the
group, which they think was active "at least from May 2014 until
April 2015." Perez denies the charges.
"I am innocent, and we hope to defend ourselves from the accusations,
so justice may prevail," Perez said as he arrived in court.
Perez filed his resignation on Wednesday after a judge issued an
arrest warrant against him, but his resignation was not made public
until early Thursday.
Former vice president Roxana Baldetti resigned in May when details of
the growing scandal came to light. She was arrested on August 21 and
put in jail for the duration of her trial.
The corruption network was known as La Linea, named for a telephone
hotline used in the operation. Importers were allowed to avoid
customs duties in exchange for paying bribes that were distributed
among the officials involved, prosecutors said.
Guatemalans gathered on Thursday on the central Plaza de la
Constitucion in Guatemala City to celebrate Perez's resignation.
"Yes we could, yes we could," people shouted as they waved flags and
blew whistles.
Rigoberta Menchu, an activist for the rights of indigenous
communities who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1992,
celebrated the resignation as a triumph for Guatemalan society.
"We cannot say that this was brought about by a handful of
Guatemalans," Menchu told Guatemalan TV station Guatevision.


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