GUATEMALA CITY — In Guatemala, death threats have driven two anti-corruption prosecutors from the country in the past year, and their unit’s leader has a protective order from a regional human rights commission because he is constantly harassed and threatened. With the departure of the United Nations-backed anti-corruption commission last year that supported a war against some of the country’s most powerful political, business and criminal leaders, Guatemala’s pursuers have become the pursued. The assault has only intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, as corrupt interests take advantage of a population distracted by the health crisis to extend their tentacles back into the justice system. Manolo Vela, a Guatemalan political analyst and professor of sociology at Mexico’s Iberoamerican University, said organized crime sees an opportunity during the pandemic “to continue their control of the judiciary and take revenge on the judges and prosecutors who had followed the law in their decisions.”

Source: International New York Times July 15, 2020 19:18 UTC