Social Insecurity: The Case of IGSS-Pisa in Guatemala

ELITES AND CRIME / 1 DEC 2021

This investigation looks into a contentious deal between a major pharmaceutical firm and the Guatemalan Social Security Institute (IGSS).

Following the deal, which prosecutors said the IGSS greenlit despite the firm’s lack of experience and infrastructure, dozens of patients with kidney disease died and scores of others were infected. The case would eventually reach the country’s highest courts where the elites implicated in the IGSS case had bought what some said was an insurance policy to make sure they would never be prosecuted.

Chapter 1

Dead Kidney Patients

ELITES AND CRIME / 1 DEC 2021

Ground to a halt in Guatemala City’s unrelenting morning traffic, a small team of government investigators began to worry they had lost their suspect. …

Chapter 2

Stress Test for Guatemalan Justice

ELITES AND CRIME / 1 DEC 2021

As day broke in Guatemala City on August 31, 2016, a judge named Carlos Ruano anxiously awaited a meeting with one of Guatemala’s most powerful magistrates.

Chapter 3

And Impunity for All

ELITES AND CRIME / 1 DEC 2021

On July 5, 2019, one of Guatemala’s deadliest and most infamous corruption cases landed in the murky world of the country’s appellate court. …

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