HomeNewsBriefEx-Guatemala President Portillo Extradited to US
BRIEF

Ex-Guatemala President Portillo Extradited to US

GUATEMALA / 27 MAY 2013 BY JAMES BARGENT EN

Former President of Guatemala, Alfonso Portillo, has been extradited to the United States to face charges of embezzlement and money laundering, a rare result against impunity in this battered Central American nation.

The ex-president was flown to New York on May 24, nine months after Guatemala's Constitutional Court ruled unanimously in favor of extradition.

Portillo stands accused of laundering $70 million of public money through US banks as president between 2000 and 2004, reported Reuters. According to the US indictment, Portillo set up fictitious foundations to divert funds, including from foreign governments, and stole millions from his own ministries.

Portillo was first accused of corruption in Guatemala but fled to Mexico shortly before the charges were filed. He was then extradited to Guatemala, but released while evidence was being collected.

Police arrested Portillo in 2010 as he was preparing to flee a second time and he stood trial on charges of misappropriating $15 million of public funds.

However, in 2011 he was controversially acquitted by a panel of judges that disallowed evidence and dismissed witnesses as "unreliable." The former president is now facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

InSight Crime Analysis

The strength of the evidence against Portillo, which includes checks signed by him and his underlings, and money diverted through accounts in his family's name, suggests he is unlikely to stage another great escape this time round.

The fact that Portillo has not been able to avoid extradition is a positive sign for ending impunity in Guatemala. However his previous acquittal and the fact that extradition was necessary remain black marks against the Guatemalan judicial system.

The decision closely follows another case that highlights both the progress made in the Guatemalan judicial system and the lingering issues around impunity -- the landmark conviction of former military dictator and one time Portillo ally Rios Montt on human rights charges, followed by the overturning of that decision on technicalities.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COCAINE / 20 JUN 2023

The career of Guatemalan congresswoman Sofía Hernández is a survivor of three different political parties, connections to narcos, and US…

ELITES AND CRIME / 4 JUL 2023

Guatemala's election results have been suspended after complaints of election fraud. Multiple observer agencies said the elections were fair.

ARGENTINA / 1 FEB 2022

In 2021, most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean experienced a marked increase in murders. Resurgent violence was to…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Rights Watch Draws on InSight Crime's Haiti Coverage

18 AUG 2023

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…