One of the newest official pillars of Guatemala’s efforts to root out corruption is leaving this week, following the expulsion or departure of a number of other anti-corruption activists who had shaken the Central American nation’s ruling class.
Jordán Rodas Andrade was an unknown law professor at a university in Guatemala’s sixth-largest city when he was elected human rights prosecutor in Congress five years ago. He surprised many by joining forces with an anti-corruption effort that targeted many of the country’s toughest figures. .
“People are tired of corruption,” Rodas said in an interview this week as his five-year term ended Saturday. The position of ombudsman is committed to the constitutional rights of Guatemalans, a task that may pit him against other officials.
His repeated attempts in court to block the government’s moves so infuriated then-President Jimmy Morales that he called Rodas “Amparito”: “little court order. “One of them temporarily blocked Morales’ expulsion from the head of the United Nations anti-corruption project in Guatemala, whose investigations were affecting some of Morales’ relatives.
Still, in 2019 Morales expelled the UN-backed anti-corruption project that had worked with local prosecutors to root out corruption and led to the imprisonment of several senior officials, including former President Otto Pérez Molina.
Under current President Alejandro Giammattei, several Guatemalan prosecutors who worked with this project and the judges who treated them were expelled.
Juan Francisco Sandoval, who headed the attorney general’s anti-corruption office, was fired in July 2021 and fled to the United States. He said his office had begun investigating Giammattei. The government later announced that it had received the order to arrest him. In response, the U. S. government suspended its cooperation with the Attorney General’s Office.
Rhodes said Giammattei is obsessed with force and has controlled to co-opt other branches of government and does so “as if he were an emperor. “
“I think we had run into Jimmy Morales, but no. Surprise!” he said. Giammattei denied the corruption allegations and was irritated by U. S. pressure on another attorney general.
The Congress elected Alejandro Córdova as Rhodes’ successor. A former Supreme Court judge, he had been singled out by the Attorney General’s anti-corruption office to bring together a businessman who has already been arrested for alleged bribery and influence peddling involving several judges. Cordova was not investigated. He has that of president and legislators of the ruling party.
Rodas’ departure comes 3 months after Giammattei reappointed Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who played a key role in the prosecution or firing of anti-corruption crusaders. The United States canceled her visa and put her on a list of alleged corrupt actors in the region.
Jorge Santos, coordinator of Guatemala’s Human Rights Defenders Protection Unit, a non-governmental organization, said Rodas had expanded the reach of the Ombudsman’s Office, creating offices to investigate disappearances, especially of others held by security forces, and to protect the freedom of expression and human rights activists. Santos said.
“The challenge for the new mediator is his closeness to the current personalities and whose impunity continues,” he said. “We look forward to seeing his independence from those personalities. “
Rhodes’ independence earned him political notoriety, as well as a long list of enemies. Opponents of Congress have made several failed attempts to free up a procedure that could have impeached him. pay the salaries of its staff.
Rodolfo Neutze, a lawmaker from the conservative Commitment, Renewal and Order party, said Rhodes had failed the establishment and divided Guatemalan society.
“Right now, a lot of other people think the ombudsman is serving leftists or criminals or anti-family ideas,” Neutze said. “He has done smart things that no one knows, but he will be remembered for reasons of support that have polarized the country. “
His candor was accompanied by threats from a far-right organization that protects infantrymen accused of crimes against humanity and targets of corruption investigations that warned that he, like several former anti-corruption prosecutors, would be the accused of the crimes.
Rhodes said he was concerned about his family’s well-being, but not about himself. He did not rule out entering politics, but did not announce anything.
“I don’t want to go into exile. When I finish, I want to dedicate myself to the educational environment where I come from. Jordan will be there for a while.
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