HomeNewsBriefGuatemala Ex-Congress Leader Latest To Fall in Anti-Impunity Crackdown
BRIEF

Guatemala Ex-Congress Leader Latest To Fall in Anti-Impunity Crackdown

ELITES AND CRIME / 30 OCT 2015 BY MIMI YAGOUB EN

Joining the former president and vice president of Guatemala in police custody is former head of Congress Pedro Muadi, accused of stealing state money in the latest example of ongoing efforts to tackle official corruption.

Muadi turned himself in to authorities this week after he was charged with embezzling up to $81,000 in state funds, reported Prensa Libre. According to investigations by the Attorney General's Office and United Nations-backed anti-impunity body the CICIG, the crimes took place between 2013 and 2014 -- while Muadi was President of Congress.

The money was funnelled into accounts belonging to Muadi by over-reporting the salaries of 15 contracted security guards, according to Prensa Libre. The guards agreed to sign contracts in which Congress paid them monthly salaries of approximately $1,037. In reality, Muadi paid the guards a quarter of these funds, and had a collaborator transfer the rest into Muadi's personal accounts. 

SEE ALSO: Coverage of Elites and Organized Crime

Muadi's detention forms part of a wider investigation by the Attorney General's Office and the CICIG into the creation of non-existent jobs in Congress. According to the CICIG, there may be up to 25 of these "phantom" congressional jobs. ElPeriodico reported that 32 people have been arrested in the investigation so far, including security guards and congressional staff. 

InSight Crime Analysis

Muadi's arrest comes as another indication that Guatemalan authorities are taking their efforts to crack down on corruption seriously, even when it involves high-level officials -- including Muadi -- who previously enjoyed impunity from prosecution

SEE ALSO: Guatemala News and Profiles

Members of Congress aren't the only ones to have investigators breathing down their necks -- last week saw the arrest of a local mayor for stealing up to $1 million in municipal funds. Another mayor was arrested October 30 on corruption charges, accused of embezzling over $500,000.

Muadi's actions are indicative of what was previously a widespread belief that Guatemala's political elites were by and large insusceptible to prosecution. This widespread misuse of public money, via manipulation of contracts, is part of why Guatemala can be said to function practically like a mafia state. The 2015 Latin American Legislative Transparency Index reflects this, stating that transparency levels in Guatemala's Congress are at a mere 46 percent.

With the CICIG helping reverse this trend of widspread impunity, it is perhaps no surprise that Guatemala's neighbor El Salvador has refused to back the creation of a similar body. Possibly in retaliation to this deeply engrained corruption in Guatemalan politics, last weekend the country elected right-wing comedian Jimmy Morales, who has no prior government experience, to be their new president.

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.

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

BOLIVIA / 26 JAN 2022

Authorities in Bolivia have arrested the Andean nation’s former anti-drug chief as he tried to flee the country, but how…

COCAINE / 9 DEC 2022

Panama has become a reliable drug trafficking logistics hub for cocaine shipments to Europe, as in the recent Super Cartel…

EL SALVADOR / 31 OCT 2022

Rodolfo Delgado, El Salvador's Attorney-General, may have worrying connections to an alleged money launderer and MS13 collaborator.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

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…