海角大神

鈥� A version of this post ran on the author's site, Insightcrime.com. The views expressed are the author's own.

Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has begun the process of renewing the mandate of a valuable United Nations-backed anti-impunity organization, easing fears about his commitment to judicial reform in the country.

President Perez made good on his to support the two-year renewal of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) yesterday, meeting with CICIG head Francisco Dall鈥橝nese in the presidential palace in order to (link in Spanish). According to Perez, renewing the mandate isn鈥檛 very complicated, and only consists of exchanging a few letters with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The CICIG鈥檚 current mandate expires in September 2013, but the renewal will add two more years to this deadline. Apart from the extension, Perez told local press that the administration will develop a 鈥渞oad map鈥� of the Commission鈥檚 objectives for the next several years, which will be presented to the countries funding the project.

InSight Crime Analysis

As InSight Crime has , the CICIG has proved to be extremely effective in the struggle to fix Guatemala鈥檚 broken justice system. Because of its importance to the prospect of judicial reform in the country, Perez raised eyebrows during his presidential campaign last summer after he about renewing the Commission鈥檚 mandate. He further fueled concerns about his dedication to cleaning up the judicial branch when he (link in Spanish) from the work of the country鈥檚 ambitious Attorney General, Claudia Paz y Paz.

However, it seems Perez has decided to keep on both the , which have continued their active pursuit of government corruption cases, as a series of prosecutions illustrate.

鈥� 聽is a writer for , which provides research, analysis, and investigation of the criminal world throughout the region. Find all of his research .

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