Top panel urges Guatemalan president face graft trial

A legislative committee on Saturday recommended that Guatemalan President Otto Perez be stripped of his immunity and face prosecution for a multimillion-dollar corruption scheme he allegedly led. Perez has been left increasingly isolated since UN investigators accused him of running the massive fraud at the national customs service, a scandal that has already felled his former vice president and caused nearly half his cabinet to resign in protest. "The committee recommends that the full Congress hand over Otto Perez to the justice system and that he lose his immunity," opposition lawmaker Jorge Barrios, a member of the panel, told reporters. For Perez to lose his immunity, at least 105 lawmakers of the total 158 must vote in favor of a resolution. On Monday the legislature should receive the committee's recommendation and likely will schedule a date to vote on it. Perez, a 64-year-old retired general in office since 2012, has apologized for the fact the graft happened on his watch but denies involvement and has rejected calls to resign before his term ends in January. He cannot run for re-election under the Guatemalan constitution. The scandal was first uncovered by a United Nations commission set up to investigate high-level corruption in the Central American country. UN investigators say Perez, ex-vice president Roxana Baldetti and a raft of other top officials operated a scheme in which businesses paid bribes to clear their imports through customs at a fraction of the actual tax rate. Baldetti, who resigned in May, has been arrested and charged with syphoning off some $3.8 million between May 2014 and April 2015. With many Guatemalans exasperated with their political leaders, some have called for the postponement of September 6 elections until sweeping reforms are implemented in the country of 15 million people, 53.7 percent of whom live in poverty.