Washington, DC— On August 29th, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court decided to permanently suspend the Presidential resolution, which would’ve expelled the head of the International Commission against impunity in Guatemala,Iván Velásquez. In their ruling, the court noted that the President had violated the Constitution by acting unilaterally and without approval of one or more cabinet members. At the same time, the court found inconsistencies with the dates of the document, and noted that the mandate did not respect the agreement established by the commission, which clearly refers to the clause that all disputes should be dealt with by both parties.
“The president engaged in an illegal act that violated the Constitution. We applaud the decision of the court, which acted in pursuit of the Rule of law,” stated Adriana Beltran, senior associate of the Citizen Security Program at the Washington Office on Latin America. “We hope that Commissioner Velasquez and the CICIG can continue their valuable work in the fight against corruption.”
WOLA, as a leading human rights organization, hopes that the pre-trial requests against the President can continue their course and that the judges analyze and resolve them with responsibility, independence and in accordance with the law. At the same time, we urge the President and other government forces to comply with the resolution of the highest court and guarantee rightful respect to the Rule of law. We also urge the government to guarantee the security of the judges that voted in favor of the resolution.
