The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, prohibited the entrance to the country of the Attorney General of Guatemala, Consuelo Porras, after the justice of that nation issued an arrest warrant against the attorney general of Colombia, Luz Adriana Camargo, and the former Minister of Defense and Ambassador designated before the Vatican, Iván Velásquez.
“You have to issue the administrative act, which I think I have to sign, prohibiting the entry of the Guatemalan prosecutor to Colombia and her mafia friends,” Petro told Chancellor Laura Sarabia during a televised council of ministers.
The president added: “It does not enter (Porras) to Colombia, its entrance is forgiven from honest Colombian people and to make fun of Colombian dignity; the entrance to Colombia is prohibited. I want that for tomorrow.”
The arrest warrant against the two Colombian officials was issued by the questioned Third Chamber of Appeals of the Guatemalan judicial agency, which gave the green light to the request for detention against Camargo and Velásquez, raised by the Public Ministry of that country in the case of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, according to local media.
According to the Guatemalan prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, when Velásquez was in charge of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), in which Camargo also worked, allowed the approval of anomalous cooperation agreements with two Brazilian executives of Odebrecht in 2017.
This Appeals Chamber has been indicated by judicial experts for its resolutions against the freedom of the journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, imprisoned for more than a thousand days without proven charges against him.
He has also been in charge of opinions against the Official Party, Seed Movement, former Anti -Corruption Stuardo Campo and the magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Court for the 2023 elections.
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, reiterated on Tuesday that Velásquez and Camargo enjoy immunity regarding their role in the CICIG, so the arrest warrant lacks validity.
Guterres indicated, through his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric, at his daily press conference: “International commission staff, by virtue of the agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Guatemala, enjoys immunity against judicial processes with respect to the acts carried out in the performance of their mission.”
Petro: Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office “obeys crime”
In 2023, the Public Ministry of Guatemala announced that it would undertake legal actions against Velásquez and Camargo for its management at the head of the CICIG, within the framework of the corruption case linked to Odebrecht.
That episode tense relations between the two countries, since President Petro then warned that diplomatic ties with the Central American country would be affected if the Prosecutor’s Office continued with legal actions against Velásquez, which at that time was his Minister of Defense.
Petro said Tuesday that the Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office “obeys crime” and compared the situation with the case of the former Peruvian president Pedro Castillo.