How Donald Trump Helped Guatemala's Former President Shut Down Anti-Corruption Investigations
By Lauren Gilger
Published: Wednesday, September 23, 2020 - 1:17pm
Updated: Wednesday, September 23, 2020 - 4:07pm
Shealah Craighead/White House
Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales visits Donald Trump at the White House on Dec. 17. 2019.
STEVE GOLDSTEIN: President Donald Trump and former Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales had a lot in common, a bromance of sorts. Both had been TV stars in their home countries before entering politics, and both felt they were being targeted by anti-corruption pioneers — Robert Mueller for Trump and a dogged prosecutor named Iván Velásquez for Morales. Our next guest joins us to tell the story of how Donald Trump helped take down Velásquez, who's known as the Robert Mueller of Latin America. Anayansi Diaz-Cortes is a reporter and producer for Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, and her latest investigation uncovers the quid-pro-quo that some say set Guatemala back decades. Our co-host Lauren Gilger spoke with her more about this.
ANAYANSI DIAZ-CORTES: So Iván Velásquez is this prosecutor that worked in the Supreme Court of Colombia for many years, and he went after then-president Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, in this, what they call now a scandal called the "parapolítica" case when he gets a call from the U.N., basically asking him, do you want to run this anti-corruption commission in Guatemala, the CICIG. And he was like, "Yeah, I thought it could be an interesting experience." And as he says, you know, it turned out to be a very interesting experience.
LAUREN GILGER: OK. And then we have the Guatemalan president, Jimmy Morales, who is a comedian. You know, I know that much about him. But tell us about, about who he is and how he and Donald Trump have some similarities.
DIAZ-CORTES: Sure. So enter Iván Velásquez into Guatemala, and shortly after he starts to wiretap then-president Otto Pérez Molina and links him to fraud charges. You know, he kind of throws him in jail, and there's a void that's left. Guatemala needs a president. And then enter this kind of TV comedian superstar named Jimmy Morales, who was very famous in Guatemala. And then he campaigns kind of like Donald Trump and just being just so known, but as a star and a comedian, problematic in many ways — dressed up as a clown, makes fun of indigenous people, makes fun of Central Americans across the board. And so he runs on an anti-corruption campaign called "Ni corrupto ni ladrón" (Neither corrupt nor a thief), and there's kind of a pulling together of sorts of Iván Velásquez and Jimmy Morales and the Guatemalan Congress.
Morfe:
https://kjzz.org/content/1620761/how-donald-trump-helped-guatemalas-former-president-shut-down-anti-corruption