Security & Strategic Review May 2011 (ISSN 1741-4202)

The UN-backed international commission against impunity in Guatemala, (Cicig) made clear its opinion that two successive court sentences in major trials exemplified the entrenched impunity that it had been set up to eradicate. One sentence absolved former president Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) and two of his ministers, accused of having appropriated large sums of public monies. The other acquitted former presidential candidate Alejandro Giammattei, accused of having been a key figure, back when he was head of the prison service under the administration of President Oscar Berger (2004-2008) , in a network devoted to extrajudicial executions.