Guatemala Plagued by Continuing Instability.

Last week, I wrote a piece on Bernardo Arevalo, the newly elected president of Guatemala, and his Anti-Corruption credentials. Since then, there have been several worrying developments about how effectively Guatemala can fight corruption and the future of its democracy. On Monday, Guatemalan prosecutors arrested Claudia Gonzalez, a representative of Guatemala’s anti-corruption commission, better known as CICIG. According to a report by the AP, Gonzalez was arrested on charges of abuse of authority by a public servant, even though, at the time, she was not officially a government member. According to another report by Yahoo, at the time of her arrest, Gonzalez had been acting as a representative for the numerous other Anti-Corruption officials arrested by the Guatemalan government.

On top of this, despite the official certification of Arevalo as the new president, there remain doubts about his ability to take office. According to a report by Al-Jazeera, the outgoing president of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, has assured Arevalo and his campaign that there will be a smooth transition of power. Despite this, Guatemala’s electoral registry has suspended Arevalo’s party Movimento Semilla (the seed Movement). There are still fears that Guatemala’s political establishment, which is notoriously corrupt, will try and find some way to impede Arevalo’s ascension to the presidency. One has to hope that democracy will prevail and that Arevalo can take power.

Anti-Corruption Crusader Wins Guatemala Election.

On Sunday, in the Guatemalan presidential election, a candidate named Bernardo Arevalo ran on an anti-corruption platform. According to an article in the New York Times, Arevalo, the leader of the Movimento Semilla (Seed Movement), is a sociologist and won 58 percent of the vote. In comparison, his opponent Sandra Torres received 37 percent. Despite being a democracy, Guatemala has been plagued by political scandals and societal corruption for years. According to another piece in The Times 2019, Guatemala had a pioneering anti-corruption body backed by the UN called the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, which was shut down due to the efforts of high-ranking officials such as businessmen and politicians who were charged with corruption, but still had enough institutional power prevent prosecutors and other officials favorable to anti-corruption steps from staying in office. Despite the current positivity in Guatemala, an article from the AP suggests that corrupt judges and government officials could try and stop the certification, thus throwing the country back into turmoil. It would be a massive boost for Latin America and the USA if Arevalo could take power and stop the endemic corruption that plagues Latin America.

Ecuador Anti-Corruption Presidential Candidate Assassinated.

Last week Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated while leaving a campaign event in Quito. According to a report by Reuters, Villavicencio was formerly an investigative journalist who focused on exposing corruption and stated that he was not afraid of being targeted by criminal gangs. Violence against politicians in Ecuador is not new. According to a report by the AP from July 23rd, the mayor of Manta, Ecuador’s third largest city, Agustin Intriago, was assassinated by what authorities believe to be organized crime elements.

According to an article by El Pais, both Mexican and Colombian drug cartels have made inroads into Ecuadorian society and have been trafficking drugs, as well as conducting other criminal enterprises. The killing of Villavicencio is concerning for two reasons. First, it hindered ongoing anti-corruption efforts, scaring people into silence and emboldening transnational criminal organizations. Secondly, it adds to the overall feeling of political and social instability in Ecuador.

Ukrainian Military Officers Fired Over Bribery Allegations.

Last Week President Zelenskyy fired officials who led Ukraine’s military recruitment drive over bribery allegations. Under Zelenskyy’s leadership, Ukraine has started to crack down on corruption, partially to improve its prospects of joining the EU and NATO. According to a BBC article, Zelenskyy announced that 30 people would face bribery allegations, including all the regional heads of the military conscription effort. The charges allege that these officials took bribes in cash and cryptocurrency and aided non-disabled men to leave the country. Current Ukrainian law states that all men over 18 able to fight up to 60 can be conscripted. It is admirable to see Zelenskyy clamp down on corruption after years of unchecked greed by other Ukrainian leaders.

SBF in Prison After Allegations of Witness Tampering.

On Friday, Sam Bankman Fried, the disgraced former CEO of FTX, had his bail revoked by a federal Judge in New York. Bankman-Fried had been out on bail living at his parent’s house in Palo Alto, CA, under House arrest. According to an article in The New York Times, prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried has tried to tamper with witnesses on two occasions and gave documents related to his case to media members. According to a report by NPR, SBF leaked private diary entries of his former girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, to the New York Times and participated in phone calls with the author Michael Lewis. The prosecution in SBF’s case felt that these actions could be an attempt to corrupt Ellison’s testimony at the upcoming trial. If this is true, SBF has some serious explaining to the judge.

A follow-up on Navalny.

Last week Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in a Russian prison camp on extremism charges. According to ABC, Navalny is already in prison on other charges that are politically driven. These charges are related to Navalny’s efforts to expose endemic corruption in the Russian state. According to VOAnews, Russian prosecutors asked for a 20-year sentence. It is abundantly clear that Navalny will never get out of prison and that the Putin regime doesn’t want him to give any opportunities to fuel protests that could bring down Putin.

Trump Indicted on January 6th Charges.

On Tuesday, Former President Donald Trump was indicted concerning his actions around January 6th, 2021. He faces charges of defrauding the U.S. government, two counts of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. The first charge details how Trump and his unindicted co-conspirators attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election by illegal means. The two counts of obstruction relate to Trump’s effort to impede the vote certification process of 2020 and his subsequent efforts to curb the certification investigation. The final charge relates to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results in states that were close.

This indictment has numerous ramifications for Trump and his cronies. According to an article in the New York Times, close allies such as Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Sidney Powell were central to Trump’s plans. While they are (for now) unindicted co-conspirators, they will likely be expected to testify during any trial, and it is also possible that they will face legal jeopardy of their own. On top of all this is the ongoing legal jeopardy that Trump faces in New York and Florida and possible legal issues in Georgia regarding his efforts to overturn the count there. Despite these issues, Trump still has a commanding lead in the race for the Republican nomination. The million-dollar question is at what point (if ever) does Trump’s legal issues possibly become big enough to force him out of the race?

Son of Columbian President Arrested on Money Laundering Charges.

On Saturday, the Columbian attorney general’s office announced that Nicolas Petro, the son of President Gustavo Petro, was arrested on money laundering charges, along with his ex-wife Daysuris Vasquez. According to an article in the New York Times, Petro, a politician in the province of Atlantico in Northern Columbia, was being investigated concerning his links with drug traffickers. Also, The Times states that Gustavo Petro’s brother was arrested on similar money laundering charges in January of this year. According to another article in The Washington Post, Ms. Vasquez claims that funds that were supposed to be directed towards President Petro’s campaign ended up in the pocket of Nicolas Petro. The dinnertime conversation in the Petro household recently must have been awkward.

Another Ally of Navalny Jailed.

A close associate of Alexei Navalny was jailed for nine years on Monday after being found guilty of “extremism” charges. According to ABC News, Vadim Ostanian, who ran the Siberian office of Navalny’s anti-corruption organization, was guilty in the eyes of the Russian state for organizing an extremist community and belonging to a non-profit that, in the words of the Russian government, “infringes on citizens rights.” Al Jazeera reported that last month another ally of Navalny Liliya Chanysheva was also found guilty on similar charges and sentenced to seven years in a Russian penal colony. It is highly likely that, like Navalny, Ostanian will not get the chance to appeal his conviction and will languish in prison. All of this further proves that Russia is a mafia state.

Corruption Scandal Tarnishes Squeaky Clean Singapore.

Singapore is not generally a place that is prone to corruption scandals. However, last week Transport Minister Subramaniam Iswaran was arrested on corruption charges along with a billionaire hotelier Ong Beng Seng. While it is unclear what exact type of misconduct allegedly occurred, it is possibly bribery in some form. According to The Guardian, Seng brought F1 Racing to Singapore. An article in Yahoo stated that Ministers in Singapore are among the highest paid in the world as a way to discourage corruption. It is unclear how this will resolve itself. However, the Singaporean government is taking it very seriously.