After the Public Ministry (MP) reported on the arrest warrant against the former head of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig), Iván Velásquez, and the attorney general of Colombia, Luz Adriana Camargo, it was indicated that the activation of a red alert to the International Police (Interpol) to achieve its arrest was requested; However, Government ensures that this process may take up to six months and that an analysis is required to determine whether or not it is given.
An Appeals Chamber of Guatemala ordered the arrest of both former Cicig officials last Monday by accusing them of alleged corruption in favor of the Brazilian company Odebrecht, because, according to prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, Velásquez “favored the entrepreneurs of the Odebrecht construction company and caused the state of Guatemala to lose more than Q3,000 million.”
This Tuesday, June 3, the Minister of the Interior, Francisco Jiménez, informed that the request for Red International Alert has not reached Interpol; In addition, he said that the activation of this is not immediate, since a committee, based in Paris, must analyze the foundations of the arrest warrants and determine whether it is processed or if discarded.
Jiménez added that the process of activating a red alert can take between three and six months.
He added that the process begins when the MP asks a judge to require Interpol to carry out the corresponding procedures. Then, a committee in Paris evaluates the applications to verify that they meet the legal requirements and that they are not politically motivated, a process that can take between three and six months.
“In Paris there is a collegiate committee that analyzes all requests from all states in the world to issue the red alerts and implement the arrest warrants. If that committee considers that the request of a state – because the MP and a judge are part of the State – turns out to be an order of spurious capture or does not have the correct characteristics, they do not authorize this type of capture orders or announce the red alert. Jiménez.
They say there will be no activation
For his part, W Radio de Colombia reported in one of his editions that the head of Interpol – without mentioning his name – confirmed that no red alert will be activated against Velásquez and Camargo, because they enjoy immunity, since the first is Colombia’s ambassador to the Vatican and the second is the attorney general of the country.
“They will not advance any red circular against our nationals. Prosecutor Camargo not only has immunity, but is innocent,” said the radio driver during the transmission.
He added that what happens in Guatemala is “as serious as what happens in El Salvador”, in reference to people who have gone into exile.
“Interpol head confirms that there is no and that there will be no red circular against Colombians,” said the station.
Prosecutor is pronounced
Camargo said Tuesday that the arrest warrant issued against him for the Justice of Guatemala has no legal basis and is part of an “unprecedented counterattack” against her and her entity for her fight against corruption and organized crime.
“We are observing that this fight against corruption and organized crime, inside and outside the country, is generating an unprecedented counterattack against the entity’s servers and the attorney general of the Nation. The decision announced yesterday by the Public Ministry of Guatemala is one of those demonstrations,” said Camargo at a press conference.
The prosecutor said that she is calm for her innocence in the “facts that, with political bias,” are attributed to her work in the CICIG and stressed that “there is no international arrest warrant” and that “it will not be issued, taking into account the statement of the Government of Guatemala that rejects the request of the Public Ministry” of that country.
With EFE information