Ex-Guatemalan police chief found guilty of lying about murder conviction to obtain green card

[Judi Lynn]

The jury took less than 3 hours to decide that the former police chief lied about his conviction for murdering two student activists in order to obtain a U.S. green card.

EDVARD PETTERSSON / January 27, 2023

LOS ANGELES (CN) — A former Guatemalan police chief was found guilty of lying about his 1989 conviction for the murder of two student activists to get a U.S. green card.

A jury in Los Angeles federal court took just three hours to return a verdict Friday. They found Catalino Esteban Valiente Alonzo guilty of knowingly lying to immigration officials to become a legal permanent resident, which would have been unlikely had he disclosed that he was convicted for the murder of the two activists by Guatemalan police and that he was a fugitive from the law. He faces as long as 10 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee set a sentencing date for May and denied the prosecution's request to have the 82-year-old jailed immediately.

Ramanujan Nadadur, one of Valiente Alonzo's two public defenders, declined to comment on the verdict.

A Guatemalan court in 1989 had sentenced Valiente Alonzo to 30 years in prison, the maximum allowed, for the double murder, but an appeals court overturned his conviction for lack evidence the following year. After his release from prison, he immediately came to the U.S. and applied for asylum without disclosing his criminal history. The Guatemalan Supreme Court reinstated his conviction in 1993 and issued a warrant for his arrest.

More:
https://www.courthousenews.com/ex-guatemalan-police-chief-found-guilty-of-lying-about-murder-conviction-to-obtain-green-card/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Grift-o-rama! More from the original article:

He has, however, maintained personal and professional relationships with Bolsonaro and his sons, particularly Carlos Bolsonaro, a city council member for Rio de Janeiro and head of his father’s digital operations.

Carlos Bolsonaro had hired de Jesus as an aide in Rio de Janeiro, before de Jesus moved to Brasilia. There, de Jesus took positions as part of a senator’s cabinet team and as an adviser to Bolsonaro’s conservative Liberal Party in the Senate.

He lost his position, however, after media reports revealed that he served as a “phantom employee”, collecting paycheques but failing to show up for work.

Since 2021, officials in Rio de Janeiro have also been investigating de Jesus after allegations surfaced that Flavio Bolsonaro — another one of the sons of the former president — had transferred money to de Jesus from his cabinet on the city council. De Jesus also allegedly received public funds for his rent.

(I remember seeing jobs like his on the Sopranos, where they were called "no show" jobs.)