Guatemala Orders Arrest of Colombian Officials Over UN Graft Probe 

A Guatemalan court this week ordered the arrest of two senior Colombian officials who previously led a United Nations anti-corruption mission in the country, drawing condemnation from both Colombian and also Guatemalan authorities, Al Jazeera reported. 

On Monday, Guatemalan prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche announced arrest warrants for Colombian Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo Garzón and former Defense Minister Iván Velásquez, accusing them of corruption, influence peddling, and obstruction. 

The charges stem from their past work with the UN-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), which investigated bribes paid by Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.  

CICIG – active from 2007 to 2019 – dismantled a number of criminal networks and implicated high-level officials before being shut down by then-President Jimmy Morales after it linked his relatives to a graft case. 

The current accusations focus on a plea deal CICIG struck with Odebrecht to obtain testimony in exchange for reduced penalties. Curruchiche claimed to have emails as evidence, but their authenticity has not been independently verified. 

On Tuesday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro dismissed the warrants as politically motivated and said Guatemala’s prosecutor’s office was “subordinate to the mafia.” The prosecutor’s office is an independent agency. 

Velásquez – now serving as Colombia’s ambassador to the Vatican – blasted the charges on social media as the product of “the corrupt Guatemalan attorney general and her prosecutor Curruchiche.”  

Human rights groups and analysts said there is “no credible evidence” and described the move as part of a broader pattern of judicial overreach by Guatemala’s Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who has been sanctioned by both the United States and the European Union, the Associated Press noted. 

Despite widespread criticism, some Colombian opposition figures praised the court’s decision. Conservative presidential frontrunner Vicky Dávila vowed to extradite Camargo and Velásquez if elected in next year’s presidential election.