The Collapse of Otto Pérez Molina’s Presidency in Guatemala

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After months of pressure, increasingly intense investigation, and popular protests, President Pérez Molina stepped down on September 3, 2015, months short of the end of his term.  While corruption has long been considered a permanent given in Guatemalan politics, hard-wired into its institutions and impossible to completely eradicate, recent events have overturned the conventional wisdom.  Mr. Pérez Molina’s former vice president, Roxana Baldetti, was forced to resign, and then arrested for involvement in a customs fraud and kickback scheme, and 14 members of his cabinet also were compelled to resign.  After Congress voted unanimously to strip him of his immunity, the president finally stepped down and was arrested, just days before Guatemala’s general elections.

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