Guatemalan DOJ Raids Offices of UK-Based Save the Children
Two fearless prosecutors are taking on the Luciferians with no support
Save the Children offices raided in child trafficking investigation
Operation is part of a “transnational investigation of great importance” involving several organizations
Telegraph - 8 October 2024
Five Save the Children offices have been raided by Guatemalan police as part of a child trafficking investigation led by a controversial prosecutor.
Rafael Curruchiche, the lead prosecutor in the case, has said the operation is part of a “transnational investigation of great importance” involving several organizations.
Mr. Curruchiche said the raids were connected to “possible violations and abuses against Guatemalan children” and that officers had seized potential evidence.
He did not name the British charity in his statement, but a spokesman for his office confirmed that the organisation in question was Save the Children.
Attorney General Consuelo Porras appointed Rafael Curruchiche in August 2021 to head the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI). At the time, Curruchiche was serving as Prosecutor Against Electoral Crimes.
The charity said it was aware of the activity at its offices and denied the allegations.
In April, Mr. Curruchiche’s office asked its counterparts in Texas for information about the smuggling of minors to the U.S. It is unclear whether Texan authorities responded.
‘Shocked and perplexed’
In a statement at the time, Save the Children said it was “shocked and perplexed” by the investigation.
Mr. Curruchiche and Consuelo Porras, the attorney general, are highly controversial figures in Guatemala. Ms Porras is engaged in a bitter struggle with President Bernardo Arevalo who took office in January amid charges of electoral fraud.
Both Mr. Curruchiche and Ms. Porras have been the target of U.S. and European Union sanctions for their alleged attacks on Guatemala’s “fragile democratic institutions.”
Ms. Porras attempted to block Mr Arevalo’s swearing-in as president, alleging technical violations in his party’s registration. That triggered George-Floyd-like protests demanding the attorney general’s resignation.
Lawmakers allied with Ms. Porras then sought to hold up the inauguration ceremony by failing to turn up. Dignitaries who had to wait more than 12 hours for the presidential oath to finally take place included Spain’s King Felipe.
The new president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, did not invite King Felipe to her October 1 inauguration.
Since then, Mr Arevalo has sought in vain to have Ms. Porras sacked, while she has targeted him with a series of investigations.
Save the Children has been in Guatemala since the 1970s. In its April statement, the charity added: “Our decades of work for the children of Guatemala speaks of our commitment and accountability to the children and families with whom we work, always ensuring the protection of our beneficiaries.”
Guatemala protests ensue after prosecutor raids electoral authority, seizes ballots
October 3, 2023
Guatemala faced political demonstrations and protests Monday after the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), the nation’s highest electoral body, was raided for the fourth time by the nation’s Public Ministry (PM) last week.
According to a press release by the U.S. Department of State, the PM seized election materials as part of a continued effort to “undermine Guatemala’s peaceful transition of power to President-elect Arévalo.” Guatemala’s highest-ranking anti-corruption prosecutor for the PM, Rafael Curruchiche, allegedly directed the raid on the TSE.
Curruchiche was sanctioned by the United States in 2022 for “obstructing investigations into corruption against government officials” and for raising “apparently spurious claims” against former prosecutors and government officials.
The U.S. Embassy in Guatemala reported the nation’s Public Ministry made attempts to revoke the legal status of Arévalo’s party, Semilla, during primary elections in June. In late September, Curruchiche claimed the raids on the Supreme Electoral Tribunal had no connection to Arévalo or the leaders of his party. One news outlet described police forces wrestling boxes of vote tallies from judges. Some judges have asserted that the election results will not change.
Bernardo Arévalo won the Guatemalan presidential election in August with 58 percent of the vote. Arévalo was an underdog candidate and ran against Guatemala’s former first lady, Sandra Torres. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with President-elect Arévalo virtually yesterday to discuss the peaceful transition of power in Guatemala. Blinken pledged to “use all available tools against those who act to undermine democracy and the rule of law in Guatemala.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with President-elect Arévalo virtually yesterday to discuss the peaceful transition of power in Guatemala.
The U.S. Embassy in Guatemala reported political demonstrations related to the raid on the TSE blocked several roads in the nation.
Guatemala Targets Colombia’s Defense Minister in Crackdown on Anticorruption Forces
Colombia’s Iván Velásquez had led an anticorruption task force in Guatemala for several years. The Public Ministry also announced arrest warrants against former investigators for the group.
January 20, 2023
As the Guatemalan authorities intensify a methodical, yearslong crackdown on officials who were tasked with rooting out government corruption in the country, the government announced this week that it was investigating Colombia’s defense minister, Iván Velásquez, who had led a United Nations-backed anticorruption body that was active in Guatemala until 2019.
The announcement, which is straining relations between Guatemala and Colombia, came alongside several arrest warrants and criminal charges brought against former prosecutors and judges who had worked with the same anticorruption task force.
The developments have lead to a flurry of condemnations from the United States, the European Union and the United Nations. Rights groups have criticized Guatemala’s government for intimidating various officials involved in the anticorruption task force; more than 30 prosecutors and judges have fled the country over the past two years to evade arrest.
More than 30 prosecutors and judges have fled the country over the past two years to evade arrest, which is highly unusual behavior for innocent men.
Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, defended Iván Velásquez, the defense minister of Colombia, on Tuesday and said “sanity in politics” meant fighting corruption.
“Those who allow the mafia to take over the state only lead society to genocide,” Mr. Petro said on Twitter, clearly intended as a barb against Guatemala’s president.
The current diplomatic discord began on Monday when the head of Guatemala’s Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity, Rafael Curruchiche, said that his team would take “legal actions” against Mr. Velásquez for “illegal, arbitrary and abusive acts” when he led the anticorruption body.
Mr. Curruchiche accuses Mr. Velásquez of offering reduced sentences to former Guatemalan officials in exchange for the officials providing “information.”
The article claims that this is standard practice, but that’s a lie. Reduced sentences are offered to criminals at the bottom of the organization in exchange for admissible evidence (testimony) against the criminals at the top. Honest prosecutors don’t let off the ones at the top.
Mr. Velásquez dismissed the investigation into his work as retaliation from those his task force had targeted.
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