Less than two weeks since President-elect Alejandro Giammattei and his Vamos party won the presidential elections in Guatemala, his chief rival, former First Lady Sandra Torres, has been arrested on charges of violating campaign finance rules.
Guatemalan police arrested Torres on Tuesday, hours before a United Nations anti-corruption commission was set to leave the country. Torres has long faced corruption charges — in 2018, her ex-husband and former President of Guatemala from 2008 to 2012, Alvaro Colom, was arrested on corruption charges.
Anti-corruption has been a significant force in Guatemalan politics since the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, CICIG, offered evidence that helped terminate the presidency of Otto Perez Molina.
The outgoing president, Jimmy Morales, sought not to renew the CICIG’s jurisdiction in 2018, allowing it to expire in September 2019. The arrest of Torres is seen as the final act of the UN-backed anti-corruption agency, whose case against Torres was used to form the charges against her. Her party has allegedly not properly registered $442,000 of financing for their 2015 presidential campaign, according to the case. In that election, Torres was the runner-up to winning candidate Morales.
Torres said she was the victim of a political agenda and reportedly felt faint in the courtroom. She was given a few minutes to catch her breath. Her party, the National Unity of Hope (UNE), holds the most seats in the Guatemala Legislative Assembly.