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Development: On 9 May a Guatemala City court acquitted former president Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) on charges of embezzling US$15m in defence funds during his 2000-2004 term of office.

Significance: The acquittal is a major disappointment for the UN-backed International Commission against Impunity (Cicig) which had been heavily involved in efforts to bring Portillo to justice. However, the court's ruling does not mean Portillo walks free. He will remain in prison pending a US extradition request on money laundering charges.

Key points:
• The court voted two to one to absolve Portillo, along with his former defence minister, Eduardo Arévalo Lacs, and former finance minister Manuel Maza Castellanos. As well as dismissing as "insufficient" the evidence provided by the attorney general's office (MP), the court also rejected testimonies from two key witnesses provided by the MP and Cicig on the grounds that they were "fraudulent". The witnesses were José Armando Llort Quiteño and Salomón Abraham Molina Girón, a former director and deputy financial director of the national mortgage bank Crédito Hipotecario Nacional (CHN).

• Attorney general, Claudia Paz y Paz has said she will appeal the verdict while Cicig has yet to comment.

• While Arévalo and Maza will be released, Portillo remains in prison after a local appeals court rejected his plea on 30 April against an extradition request from the US in relation to money laundering charges first announced in January 2010.

• Guatemala has yet to convict any of former president charged with corruption and other crimes: those accused include Romeo Lucas (1978-1982), who recently died in exile in Venezuela, and Jorge Serrano (1990-1993), who is in Panama.

Development: On 9 May César Pina Toribio, the Dominican Republic's minister of the presidency and a high ranking leader in the ruling Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD), accused the opposition Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) of having "no moral authority" to fight corruption.  

Significance: Pina's comments followed the official presentation of former president Hipólito Mejía (2000-2004) as the PRD presidential candidate for the 2012 presidential elections. It shows the extent to which the PLD leadership is concerned about Mejía prospective return to power. This could prove determinant in the PLD internal primaries, as Danilo Medina, who lost the 2000 elections to Mejía, is ahead in the polls. 

Key points:

• In his speech on 7 May Mejía declared that "the population [was] tired of the increasing levels of corruption in the country". He argued that successive PLD governments have squandered public money and abused their right to raise taxes, while irresponsibly increasing the public debt. He vowed to fight all official corruption. "They have earned millions, but the country has lost eight years", he said. Mejía presented Luis Abinader as his running mate.

• Pina responded that Mejía's administration was rife with drug trafficking scandals. He suggested that the mere mention of the case of a former army captain, Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo, extradited to the US as a drug trafficker and thought to have direct links to Mejía's inner circle, would be enough to "shut him up". Pina warned that the PLD would "remind the country about the Mejía administraton".     

• Medina lost the PLD primaries to Fernández ahead of the 2004 elections. The party is currently divided between the Medina faction and Fernández supporters unsure who are unsure as to which of the other five presidential pre-candidates best represents continuity with Fernández's political project. The primaries take place on 26 June.