In unprecedented move, Guatemalan president resigns amid corruption scandal

By Joshua Partlow-September 3 

GUATEMALA CITY — After an extraordinary outpouring of public indignation, President Otto Perez Molina stepped down and appeared before a judge on Thursday to hear accusations that he presided over a massive criminal scheme to defraud his impoverished Central American country.

His resignation, submitted at midnight Wednesday, marked the dramatic culmination of weeks of public outcry over a bribery and kickback scheme that has implicated about 100 people, including many high-ranking members of his government.

Crowds gathered overnight in the capital's central plaza to wave flags and banners celebrating Perez Molina's departure. For a country with a history of vicious government repression and weak judicial institutions, the outcome was remarkable. Guatemala could offer a model for other Latin American countries afflicted with entrenched corruption.

Recently-named Vice President Alejandro Maldonado was chosen to serve out Perez Molina’s term, which was to end in January. Maldonado, a former foreign minister, became vice president after the resignation in May of Vice President Roxana Baldetti, now in prison for allegedly receiving $3.7 million in bribes. Guatemalans are to vote Sunday in previously scheduled elections to choose a president ot take office in early 2016.

[Past coverage: Guatemalan Congress clears way for arrest of president in corruption case]

During a radio interview Thursday morning, Perez Molina, 64, described himself as calm and confident that his case could be heard by objective judges. He said he considered the accusations “unjust” but he preferred to resign and deal with them rather than cause “polarization or confrontation or violence in the country.”

He called the situation “very difficult” and “very painful.”

In his courthouse appearance, Perez Molina occasionally bit his fingernails and twirled his pen as he listened while prosecutors outlined the case against him. An investigation by the attorney general’s office and a team of U.N.-backed anti-corruption investigators alleged that he and several senior officials participated in a conspiracy to receive millions in bribes in exchange for letting companies evade customs taxes. Pérez Molina, who is under order not to leave the country, has consistently denied wrongdoing.

As the scandal has grown, so have the protests demanding his ouster. They have spread from university students to business executives and Catholic church leaders, and when the congressional vote came this week to decide whether he would retain his immunity from prosecution, even his own party abandoned him.

The congress convened Thursday morning to accept his resignation and name his successor.

Pérez Molina is a retired army general and chief of military intelligence. Hewas elected in 2011.

Joshua Partlow is The Post’s bureau chief in Mexico. He has served previously as the bureau chief in Kabul and as a correspondent in Brazil and Iraq.