Guatemala leader says ‘corrupt minority’ meddled in judges’ selection

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Guatemala leader says 'corrupt minority' meddled in judges' selection

GUATEMALA CITY, Oct 5, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo said Friday that a "corrupt minority" had interfered in the selection of the country's Supreme Court judges, calling for a reform of the judiciary.

Congress chose 13 justices the previous day in a process observers criticized as opaque and marred by political interference.

Among those, three were members of the previous court, including two under suspicion of wrongdoing.

"We always knew that the court selection process was going to face continuous challenges, particularly from that corrupt minority that refuses to disappear," Arevalo told a news conference.

The government had no doubt that the only way to ensure an independent justice system was "to reform it from a completely new perspective," he added.

The choice of Supreme Court judges was considered critical for the fight against graft in one of Central America's poorest countries.

"The mafias won," Ana Maria Mendez Dardon of the human rights WOLA said afterward, adding the outcome was a "bitter pill" for Arevalo and his battle.

Arevalo's anti-corruption crusade has put him in the crosshairs of prosecutors accused of graft themselves.

The outgoing Supreme Court had been criticized for backing Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who led an unsuccessful push to have Arevalo's August 2023 election victory invalidated.

Arevalo, who won the presidency on an anti-corruption platform, had urged Congress to select the "best" candidates in order to "continue in the spirit of change the country needs" and ensure an independent justice system.

Guatemala is ranked the 30th most corrupt country in the world by the NGO Transparency International.

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