Back in 2015, Guatemala's President Otto Perez Molina was forced to resign before being eventually found guilty of fraud and criminal conspiracy. His downfall seemed proof that impunity for corruption was not inevitable in a country plagued by 40 years of civil war. Perez was the prize catch of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), but this victory was short-lived. In 2018, the Commission was dissolved by the new president, Jimmy Morales, whom it was investigating. Since then, the justice system has been in the government's crosshairs: magistrates are arrested, imprisoned or forced into exile; journalists and lawyers risk the same fate. FRANCE 24's Laurence Cuvillier and Matthieu Comin report on the country's authoritarian drift.
On December 7, 2022, a Guatemalan court sentenced Perez, who had served as president between 2012 and 2015, to 16 years in prison over the customs fraud scandal that had led to his resignation. He announced his intention to appeal.
