Otto Pérez Molina | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 2012 | |
| 48th President of Guatemala | |
| In office 14 January 2012 – 3 September 2015 | |
| Vice President |
|
| Preceded by | Álvaro Colom |
| Succeeded by | Alejandro Maldonado(Acting) |
| Deputy of theCongress of Guatemala | |
| In office 14 January 2004 – 14 January 2008 | |
| Constituency | National List |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Otto Fernando Pérez Molina (1950-12-01)1 December 1950 (age 74) Guatemala City, Guatemala |
| Political party | Patriot Party |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | School of the Americas Inter-American Defense College |
| Cabinet | Cabinet of Otto Pérez Molina |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Guatemala |
| Branch/service | Guatemalan Army |
| Years of service | 1966–2000 |
| Rank | Brigadier General |
Otto Fernando Pérez Molina (born December 1, 1950)[1] is aGuatemalan politician and retired general who served as the 48thpresident of Guatemala from 2012 to 2015. Standing as thePatriotic Party (Partido Patriota) candidate, he lost the2007 presidential election but prevailed in the2011 presidential election.[2] During the 1990s, before entering politics, he served as Director of Military Intelligence, Presidential Chief of Staff under PresidentRamiro de León Carpio, and as the chief representative of the military for theGuatemalan Peace Accords.[3] On being elected President, he called for thelegalization of drugs.[4]
On September 2, 2015, beset by corruption allegations and having been stripped of his immunity by Congress the day earlier, Pérez presented his resignation.[5][6] He was arrested on September 3, 2015.[7] Following his arrest, Pérez remained in prison until he was released on bond in January 2024;[8][9][10] prior to his release, Pérez received convictions and jail sentences in 2022 and 2023.[10][11]
Pérez is a graduate ofGuatemala's National Military Academy (Escuela Politécnica),[12] theSchool of the Americas,[13] and of theInter-American Defense College.[14]
He has served as Guatemala's Director of Military Intelligence[15] and asinspector-general of the army.[16] In 1983, he was a member of the group of army officers who backedDefence MinisterÓscar Mejía'scoup d'état againstde facto presidentEfraín Ríos Montt.[17]
While serving as chief of military intelligence in 1993, he was instrumental in forcing the departure ofPresidentJorge Serrano. The president had attempted a "self-coup" by dissolvingCongress and appointing new members to theSupreme Court (Corte Suprema de Justicia). (See1993 Guatemalan constitutional crisis.)[18]
In the wake of that event, Guatemala's human rightsombudsman,Ramiro de León Carpio, succeeded as president, according to theconstitution. He appointed Pérez as his presidential chief of staff, a position he held until 1995. Considered a leader of the Guatemalan Army faction that favored a negotiated resolution of the 30-year-longGuatemalan Civil War,[19] Pérez represented the military in the negotiations with guerrilla forces. They achieved the 1996 Peace Accords.[20]
Between 1998 and 2000, Pérez represented Guatemala on theInter-American Defense Board.[16]
In February 2001, he founded the Patriotic Party.[21] In the2003 general election on 9 November 2003, Pérez was elected to Congress.[22]
He was the candidate of the Patriotic Party in the2007 presidential election, campaigning under the slogan "Mano dura, cabeza y corazón" ("Firm hand, head and heart"), advocating ahard-line approach to rising crime in the country. After receiving the second-largest number of votes in the initial contest on 9 September, he lost the election toÁlvaro Colom of theNational Unity of Hope in thesecond round on 4 November 2007.[23]
During the 2007 presidential campaign, several members of the Patriotic Party were killed by armed assailants. Victims included Aura Marina Salazar Cutzal, an indigenous woman who was secretary to the party's congressional delegation and an assistant to Pérez.[24][25]
Pérez was finally elected in theNovember 2011 presidential election with 54% of the vote and took office on 14 January 2012.[26] Pérez was the first former military official to be elected to the presidency since Guatemala's return to democratic elections in 1986.[27]
He proposed the legalization of drugs when he first became president while attending theUnited Nations General Assembly,[28] as he said that theWar on Drugs has proven to be a failure.[4]
In April 2015, international prosecutors, with help from the UN, presented evidence of a customs corruption ring ("La Línea") in which discounted tariffs were exchanged for bribes from importers; prosecutors learned of the call throughwiretaps and financial statements.[29] Vice PresidentRoxana Baldetti resigned on 8 May and was arrested for her involvement on 21 August.[30] On 21 August, Guatemalan prosecutors presented evidence of Pérez's participation in the corruption ring.[5] Congress, in a 132–0 vote,[5] stripped Pérez Molina of prosecutorial immunity on 1 September 2015, and he presented his resignation from the Presidency on 2 September.[29]
On 3 September, after a court hearing in which charges and evidence against him were presented, he was arrested and sent to the Matamoros prison inGuatemala City.[29] Vice PresidentAlejandro Maldonado Aguirre was appointed to serve the remainder of Pérez's 4-year term in office (due to end on 14 January 2016).[31]
On 27 October 2017,[32] Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez of Guatemala City ordered Pérez, Baldetti, and another 26 people, including former senior officials from Guatemala's customs duty system, to stand trial on charges related to bribes channeled to officials helping businesses evade customs duties and Pérez has remained in custody since his 2015 arrest.[9] In May 2021, one of the five corruption and money laundering charges against Pérez was dropped, though it was also agreed that Pérez would still be detained in a military base prison.[8]
On 18 January 2022, Pérez's corruption trial officially began.[33] Baldetti, who was previously convicted in another "La Linea" related trial, was named as his co-defendant.[33]
On 7 December 2022, Pérez, along with Baldetti, was sentenced to 16 years in prison.[34]
On 7 September 2023, Perez was sentenced to an additional sentence of eight years in prison after pleading guilty to charges in a separate corruption case.[11] However, the presiding judge also ruled that the sentence could be commuted through payment, with Pérez then making payment in November 2023.[10]
On 4 January 2024, Pérez was released from a prison, where he remained since his 2015 arrest, after posting a bond of more than 10.3 millionquetzales.[10] Among the other conditions for his release was an agreement that he would not leave Guatemala and also would check with prosecutors every 30 days.[10] On 7 January, Otto Pérez Lea, son of Pérez, shared a video on Instagram featuring him and his father.[35] In the video, Pérez expressed his appreciation for the support and prayers he had received while imprisoned. He also stated that he never had the intention to "run away" from the country following his resignation from the presidency in 2015.[35]
In 2011, reports were made, based on the United States'National Security Archives, that Pérez was involved in thescorched earth campaigns of the 1980s under the military dictator Efraín Ríos Montt.[36] Pérez commanded acounterinsurgency team in theIxil Community in 1982-3 and is accused of ordering themass murder of civilians, destruction of villages, andresettlement of the remaining population in army-controlled areas.[37][38] Investigative journalistAllan Nairn interviewed Pérez Molina in Ixil in 1982 and reported that Pérez Molina had been involved in the torture and murder of four suspected guerrillas.[39][40]
In July 2011, the indigenous organizationWaqib Kej presented a letter to theUnited Nations accusing Pérez of involvement ingenocide andtorture committed inQuiché during thecivil war.[41][42][43] Among other evidence, they cited a 1982 documentary in which a military officer whom they claim is Pérez is seen near four dead bodies. In the following scene, a subordinate says that those four were captured alive and taken "to the Major" (allegedly Pérez) and that "they wouldn't talk, not when we asked nicely and not when we were mean [ni por las buenas ni por las malas]."[44]
Although it is clear that Pérez Molina actively participated in a foul counterinsurgency campaign, he has denied any involvement in atrocities. Declassified US documents present him as one of the more progressive Guatemalan military officers who had a hand in the downfall of General Ríos Montt.[37][45]
In 1992, the guerrilla leaderEfraín Bámaca Velásquez disappeared. His wife, American lawyerJennifer Harbury, has presented evidence that Pérez, who was Director of Military Intelligence at the time, probably issued the orders to detain and torture the commandant.[46][47][48]
In 2011, he became the subject of a new investigation into the disappearance of Bámaca.[49]
In his bookThe Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop? American journalistFrancisco Goldman argues that Pérez Molina may have been present, along with two other high officials, a few blocks from the April 1998 murder ofJuan José Gerardi Conedera, a Roman Catholic bishop.[50] Prosecutors in the subsequent trial said that Pérez and the other two men were there to supervise the assassination.[51] Gerardi was murdered two days after the release of a human rights report he helped prepare for the United Nations'Historical Clarification Commission.[52]
Pérez is married to Rosa María Leal.[citation needed]
On 21 February 2000, shortly before Pérez planned to launch his new political party, his daughter Lissette was attacked by a gunman.[53] The same day, a woman namedPatricia Castellanos Fuentes de Aguilar was shot and killed after meeting with Pérez's wife, Rosa María Leal.[53] On 11 November 2000, Pérez's son, Otto Pérez Leal, was attacked while driving; Pérez Leal's wife and infant daughter were also in the vehicle.[53] Human rights groups[which?] said that the attacks were politically motivated.[53][54]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | President of Guatemala 2012–2015 | Succeeded by Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre Acting |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Federal Republic of Central America (1823–1839); Supreme Chiefs of State | direct central rule, 1823–24 direct central rule, 1826–27 |  |
|---|---|---|
| Republic of Guatemala (since 1839); Presidents | ||
* interim;† military | ||
