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Bogota, Colombia – Colombian President Gustavo Petro has criticised a Guatemalan court order for the arrests of two senior Colombian officials, accusing the prosecutor’s office of being corrupt.
Guatemalan Public Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche on Monday accused Colombian Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo and former Colombian Defence Minister Ivan Velasquez of corruption, influence peddling, obstruction of justice, and collusion during a United Nations-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) investigation into bribes paid to Guatemalan officials by Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.
Petro said on Tuesday that the targeting of Camargo and Velasquez was politically motivated and shows that the attorney general’s office is “subordinate to the mafia”.
“Narcotrafficking multinationals are trying to take over legal authorities and governments to carry out and whitewash their illicit business,” wrote Petro in a post on X.
In a statement released on Monday, Guatemala’s government also said it “emphatically rejects the arrest warrants”.
“These actions are carried out with a clear political objective, without grounding in the national and international legal system,” it said.
While announcing the warrants on Monday, Curruchiche alleged without providing evidence that Camargo and Velasquez abused their power while working at the CICIG on the Odebrecht case, a vast corruption scandal in which the construction firm admitted to bribing officials for public contracts in 10 Latin American countries.
On Tuesday, Curruchiche presented emails, purportedly between Odebrecht employees and Camargo, to reporters that he said prove Camargo and Velasquez are guilty, though Al Jazeera could not independently verify the validity of the emails.
Curruchiche’s office first announced it was investigating Velasquez, who is currently Colombia’s ambassador to the Holy See, in January 2023 when he was still minister of defence. From 2013 to 2019, Velasquez oversaw the CICIG, which uncovered several corruption networks in Guatemala.
Guatemala’s prosecutor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Both Camargo and Velasquez have denied the accusations.
“The corrupt Guatemalan Attorney General and her prosecutor Curruchiche – designated as corrupt and sanctioned by the US and the European Union – extend their persecution to me and Luz Adriana Camargo,” wrote Velasquez in an X post on Tuesday.
Colombia’s attorney general also rejected the charges in a press conference in Bogota on Wednesday.
“I am comforted by the tranquility of my innocence in the crimes that have been attributed to me by political bias,” said Camargo.
‘Action as a weapon’
Juanita Goebertus Estrada, director of the Americas Division at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera that the accusations against the Colombian officials were unfounded.
“There is no evidence against Velasquez or Camargo of any credible participation in criminal activity,” she said, adding that the warrants were just the latest in a series of controversial moves by the office of Guatemala’s Attorney General Maria Consuelo Porras, who has faced international criticism for resisting anti-corruption efforts.
“Consuelo Porras has a terrible record in human rights and democracy. She has constantly used criminal action as a weapon against those who have tried to fight against corruption in the country,” said Goebertus.
Curruchiche was criticised for interfering with elections after his office suspended then-candidate Bernardo Arevalo’s party ahead of the presidential run-off in 2023. Arevalo went on to win the elections, assuming office in January 2024
Guatemala’s government said the arrest warrants are part of a wider pattern of judicial overreach.
“These are part of a series of actions by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Attorney General of the Republic and judges associated with corruption that have distorted the meaning of justice in Guatemala,” said the Guatemalan government in its statement on Monday.
People hold a banner with the photos of Attorney General Maria Consuelo Porras and Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche during a protest in support of democracy and to demand a peaceful democratic transition of power, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, on December 7, 2023 [Cristina Chiquin/Reuters]Despite the arrest orders, it appears unlikely that actions against the two officials will be taken outside of Guatemala.
“Petro won’t comply with the arrest warrants … and it is very likely that he will seek an injunction to any international notice by Interpol that seeks to do the same,” Sergio Guzman, director at Colombia Risk Analysis, a security think tank, told Al Jazeera.
However, Colombian opposition figures have embraced the arrest warrants as evidence of corruption in the Petro administration. Vicky Davila, the conservative frontrunner in next year’s presidential elections, promised to comply with the order.
“On August 7 of next year, we will send them to Guatemala on a commercial flight, handcuffed, as befits extradited persons, to answer to the justice of that country for their alleged crimes,” wrote Davila in a post on X on Monday.
