GUATEMALA CITY, (Reuters) – Former Guatemalan President Otto Perez accused the United States on Wednesday of helping to topple him by interfering in the Central American country and endorsing a United Nations-backed anti-corruption commission.
A Guatemalan judge ordered Perez on Tuesday to remain in jail while awaiting trial over a graft scandal that stoked a political crisis ahead of a presidential election, charging him with criminal association, taking bribes and customs fraud.
Guatemalan prosecutors and the powerful U.N.-backed anti-graft body CICIG moved against Perez after months of investigations and findings taken from some 89,000 telephone taps, almost 6,000 emails and 17 raids.
In a series of meetings that began early this year, the U.S. government pressured Guatemala’s then-president Perez to rid his administration of corrupt officials and to renew the CICIG’s mandate, officials with direct knowledge of the talks have told Reuters.
