Guatemala arrests ex-1st lady, presidential runner-up Torres
BY SONIA PÉREZ D. ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEPTEMBER 02, 2019 11:51 AM, UPDATED 1 HOUR 45 MINUTES AGO
GUATEMALA CITY
Former Guatemalan first lady and presidential runner-up Sandra Torres was arrested Monday on charges of campaign finance violations, the latest high-profile political figure to face allegations of malfeasance even as a U.N. anti-graft commission is set to shut down.
Investigators searched Torres' Guatemala City home in the morning and transported her to court, handcuffed, with her face obscured by a scarf, a hood and dark glasses. She told journalists she was the victim of a political vendetta.
Prosecutors said she is accused of unregistered electoral financing and illicit association related to the 2015 election and the National Unity of Hope party, of which she was both candidate and general secretary. According to investigators the party did not properly register some $3.6 million in financing for her campaign.
The investigation found that several businesses financed the party through the payment of commissions, diversion of funds and bribes to various public and private institutions.
More:
https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/nation-world/article234634797.html
(Very hard for anyone who is NOT a fascist to get ahead in politics in Guatemala. Sandra Torres was originally married to former Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom who was attacked relentlessly during his presidency. The decision Sandra Torres would run for the Presidency was made years ago, and well known while she was married to her husband, and the plan to divorce was made for political reasons.)
Her husband's Wikipedia:
Wikipedia:
Álvaro Colom
Álvaro Colom Caballeros (Spanish: [ˈalβaɾo koˈlon]; born June 15, 1951) is a Guatemalan politician who was the President of Guatemala from 2008 to 2012, as well as leader of the social-democratic National Unity of Hope (UNE).
Early years
Colom was born in Guatemala City, the son of Antonio Colom Argueta and Yolanda Caballeros Ferraté, being the fourth of five siblings. His uncle, Manuel Colom, was a mayor of Guatemala City who was killed by the military in 1979 just after the creation of his political party was approved.[1] He is also the father of Antonio Colom Szarata, the bass player of a Guatemalan pop rock band, Viento en Contra.[2] He and his third wife, Sandra Torres, divorced in 2011 in order for his wife to be able to run in the 2011 presidential election.
After gaining a degree as an industrial engineer at the University of San Carlos (USAC) he became a businessman involved in a variety of businesses, and a government civil servant, including being the founding General Director of the Fondo Nacional para la Paz and Vice Minister of the Economy before turning to politics. One of his businesses was a "maquila" with associate Luis Mendizabal [3]
Representing the UNE (Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza) in the 2003 presidential elections, he lost to Óscar Berger on December 28, 2003–the closest a left-wing presidential candidate had come to winning the presidency since democracy was restored in 1985.
President (2008–2012)
Main article: 2007 Guatemalan general election
He was one of the two candidates to reach the second stage of the 2007 presidential election on September 9, 2007 along with Partido Patriota candidate Otto Pérez Molina. At 10:00 p.m. local time on election night, Colom was declared the newly elected president by over five percentage points, 52.7% to 47.3%, with over 96% of polling places counted,[4] becoming Guatemala's first left-wing president in 53 years.[5] During the presidential campaign, Colom promised to tackle poverty in an effort to reduce the rate of crime in the country.[6]
As President, Colom expanded social programs[7] and access to health, education, and social security. These contributed to a rise in the living standards of the Guatemalan poor.[8][9]
In 2010 he appointed Helen Mack Chang, a noted human rights activist, to investigate police corruption and make recommendations for changes. She noted that their low pay and poor working conditions made them open to influence and needed to be addressed.[10]
Although he is opposed to the death penalty, Colom stated that he would not pardon those sentenced to death out of respect for the country's laws, although the option to do so was granted in 2008.[11] The last execution in Guatemala, however, took place in 2000 and was since abolished for civilian crimes in 2017.
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvaro_Colom
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Guardian: Guatemala's first lady Sandra Torres to divorce 'for her country'
President's wife now aims to stand for election to succeed President Álvaro Colom
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent
@rorycarroll72
Thu 19 May 2011 16.23 EDT
Guatemala's first lady, Sandra Torres, has won constitutional court backing to divorce her husband, President Álvaro Colom, allowing her to stand for election to succeed him and, in her words, "marry the people".
The court quashed all legal challenges to a divorce, which lets Torres sidestep a ban on close relatives of the president running for office.
A group of lawyers had tried to block the divorce, claiming it was a political subterfuge that violated the constitution, but the court rejected the petition, saying the marriage's dissolution was a private act.
The decision cleared the way for electoral authorities to approve the candidacy and to enable Torres, 51, to step up her campaign to become the country's first female head of state.
The couple married eight years ago in a civil ceremony and proved a formidable political duo, with Torres advising Colom on key issues and running the government's anti-poverty programme. Some described the first lady as the real power in the presidential palace.
Colom, 59, the country's first centre-left leader in decades, was elected in 2008 and constitutionally barred from a second consecutive term. Torres announced her candidacy for the ruling party in March and tearfully said she was leaving a loving marriage for the sake of the nation.
"I am divorcing my husband but I am getting married to the people. I am not going to be the first or the last woman who decides to get a divorce, but I am the only woman to get a divorce for her country," she told a news conference. She was already a divorcee and was Colom's third wife.
The frontrunner in September's election, Otto Pérez Molina, a former army general, called the divorce electoral fraud. Guatemala's Catholic bishops criticised the move, saying in a public letter that the institution of marriage was not negotiable and that "notable people in society" had even greater responsibility to protect the bond.
A court granted the divorce in April but opponents appealed to the constitutional court. Perez Molina, 60, a former intelligence chief who has been accused of human rights abuses, said voters would punish his rival for what he termed a cynical breach of the constitution. He is standing on a law and order ticket to tackle rising crime.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/19/guatemala-sandra-torres-divorce
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Speaking of "cynical breaches of the constitution," please see the Wikipedia of the former president of Guatemala who said that:
Otto Pérez Molina
. . .
Otto Fernando Pérez Molina (born 1 December 1950)[1] is a Guatemalan politician and retired military officer, who was President of Guatemala from 2012 to 2015. Standing as the Patriotic Party (Partido Patriota) candidate, he lost the 2007 presidential election but prevailed in the 2011 presidential election.[2] During the 1990s, before entering politics, he served as Director of Military Intelligence, Presidential Chief of Staff under President Ramiro de León Carpio, and as chief representative of the military for the Guatemalan Peace Accords.[3] On being elected President, he called for the legalization of drugs.[4]
On 2 September 2015, beset by corruption allegations and having been stripped of his immunity by Congress the day earlier, Pérez presented his resignation.[5][6] He was arrested on 3 September 2015.[7] Perez has remained in custody since his 2015 arrest.[8]
. . .
Accusations of human rights abuses
Civil war atrocities
In 2011 reports were made, based on United States' National Security Archives, that Pérez was involved in the scorched earth campaigns of the 1980s under the military dictator Efraín Ríos Montt.[30] Pérez commanded a counterinsurgency team in the Ixil Community in 1982-3 and is accused of ordering the mass murder of civilians, destruction of villages and resettlement of the remaining population in army-controlled areas.[31][32] Investigative journalist Allan Nairn interviewed Pérez Molina in Ixil in 1982, and reported that Pérez Molina had been involved in the torture and murder of four suspected guerrillas.[33][34]
In July 2011, the indigenous organization Waqib Kej presented a letter to the United Nations accusing Pérez of involvement in genocide and torture committed in Quiché during the civil war.[35][36][37] Among other evidence, they cited a 1982 documentary in which a military officer whom they claim is Pérez is seen near four dead bodies. In the following scene, a subordinate says that those four were captured alive and taken "to the Major" (allegedly Pérez) and that "they wouldn't talk, not when we asked nicely and not when we were mean [ni por las buenas ni por las malas]."[38]
Although it is clear that Pérez Molina actively participated in a particularly dirty counterinsurgency campaign, he has denied any involvement in atrocities. Declassified US documents present him as one of the more progressive Guatemalan military officers, who had a hand in the downfall of General Ríos Montt.[31][39]
Allegations of involvement in the killing of Efraín Bámaca
In 1992, the guerrilla leader Efraín Bámaca Velásquez disappeared. His wife, American lawyer Jennifer Harbury, has presented evidence that Pérez, who was Director of Military Intelligence at the time, probably issued the orders to detain and torture the commandante.[40][41][42]
In 2011, he became the subject of a new investigation into the disappearance of Bámaca.[43]
Allegations of involvement in the murder of Catholic bishop Gerardi
In his book The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop?, American journalist Francisco Goldman argues that Pérez Molina may have been present, along with two other high officials, a few blocks from the April 1998 murder of Juan José Gerardi Conedera, a Roman Catholic bishop.[44] Prosecutors in the subsequent trial said that Pérez and the other two men were there to supervise the assassination.[45] Gerardi was murdered two days after the release of a human rights report he helped prepare for the United Nations' Historical Clarification Commission.[46]
Personal life
Pérez is married to Rosa María Leal.
On 21 February 2000, shortly before Pérez planned to launch his new political party, his daughter Lissette was attacked by a gunman.[47] The same day, a woman named Patricia Castellanos Fuentes de Aguilar was shot and killed after meeting with Pérez's wife, Rosa María Leal.[47] On 11 November 2000, Pérez's son, Otto Pérez Leal, was attacked while driving; Pérez Leal's wife and infant daughter were also in the vehicle.[47] Human rights groups[which?] said that the attacks were politically motivated.[47][48]
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_P%C3%A9rez_Molina