Portillo found not guitly

El Periodico

In a surprising verdict yesterday afternoon, a Guatemalan court exonerated former president Alfonso Portillo, former defense minister Eduardo Arevalo Lacs and former finance minister Hiram Maza Castellanos. The three were accused of embezzling 120 million quetzales (~$15 dollars) from the Ministry of Defense during Portillo's 2000-2004 presidential term.

Prensa Libre

Government prosecutors had sought a maximum 10-year prison sentence for the accused. They also wanted the three permanently banned from political life. However, the majority decision (two out of three) stated that the prosecution did not prove its case and that the men should be set the men free.

Siglo XXI

In particular, the court said that two key prosecution witnesses (Jose Armando Llort Quiteño and Solomon Giron Molina, former president and finance director of the National Mortgage Bank) lied under oath and that their testimony was critical to passing judgment on the accused.


This is tough loss for CICIG, the Attorney General's office, and the people of Guatemala. In January I wrote that

Portillo will be the first former president to stand trial in Guatemala, so it is an important test of the CICIG-improved justice system. Hopefully, the trial will not prove as much of an embarrassment as the recent acquittal in Mexico of a man who bragged about killing his girlfriend.

Whatever the outcome, Portillo will probably have to stand trial in the US and/or France at some point as well.

I'm afraid it is an embarrassment one way or another. If Portillo is indeed innocent, CICIG and the Public Prosecutor's office do not look good because they brought the case against him when they lacked sufficient evidence to convict. However if Portillo is indeed guilty of the crimes that he has been accused of, then this brings into serious doubt any improvement in the country's criminal justice system.

 

Portillo is not out of the woods yet. He can still be extradited to the United States to face charges. I imagine that his acquittal yesterday will make his extradition less likely, but I really don't know.

 

While the Guatemalan criminal justice system suffered a severe setback in Portillo's trial, the prosecutor's office and CICIG redeemed themselves did win convictions in the murder of Victor Rivera, a former advisor to the country's Interior Minister.