Saturday, January 30, 2010

News Updates

Ok, I was going to write separate entries for these, but thought that might be a little over the top, so I'm just going to mix them all in one blog; I leave it up to each of you if you want to follow the links for more information. The first link is my original blog post, the second is the updated link :)

1) Honduras. The ousted president is finally leaving his hiding in the Brazilian Embassy and says he is leaving the country. I think after four months he finally got the message that he's not going to be reinstated.

2) The suspects in the murder of Attorney Rosenberg are being put on trial. We'll see if they ever get a conviction.

3) This one's completely new. Since the CICIG began, one of the issues it was tackling was charging ex-president Alfonso Portillo for money laundering. Like probably most Guatemalan presidents, Portillo had prepared his post-presidency life by stashing away at least $6.5 million through American banks. There were claims that some of this money came from funds that were supposed to provide snacks to children in the public school system, as well as from the defense budget and who knows where else. Anyhow, the CICG tried as much as it could, but Portillo's legal team kept objecting and interfering with the CICIG's attempts to move the legal process forward. Portillo's extradition to Guatemala from Mexico was first requested in 2005, and the CICIG joined the proceedings in 2009.

Now things got a little more complicated. The US issued an arrest warrant for Portillo this month, since the money laundering was done through US banks, and he was actually arrested before trying to flee the country. The issue now is where Portillo will stand for trial. Although Portillo initially argued he fled Guatemala to Mexico because he could not get a fair trial there, his legal team is now claiming that he cannot be extradited to the US to stand trial because he is currently facing prosecution in Guatemala. Huh. Furthermore, there are allegations by Portillo that the arrest warrant was not property issued because Mexico did not provide the necessary consent, since they were the ones that originally granted his extradition to Guatemala.

Phew. Quite a mess, huh? We'll see what-if anything-happens with this one.

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