Otto Perez Molina, President of Guatemala has resigned, hours after the country’ s attorney general got a warrant for his arrest and prosecution.
Jorge Ortega said Pérez Molina submitted his resignation at midnight local time after Guatemala’s attorney general obtained a warrant for his arrest amid a corruption scandal that has brought his government to the brink.
In a fast-moving climax to a crisis that has been building for months, MPs removed the president’s immunity from prosecution on Tuesday, and on Wednesday the attorney general, Thelma Aldana, asked for an arrest warrant for Pérez Molina.
Soon afterwards, Aldana said a judge had issued the order on charges of illicit association, fraud and receiving bribe money related to a widespread customs fraud ring over which the vice-president has already been jailed and faces charges.
The charges were illicit association, taking bribes and customs fraud.
Perez´s lawyer said the president, who had been deemed a flight risk, would present himself at court at 8 a.m. on Thursday (1400 GMT).
Perez, who cannot run for re-election under the constitution and is supposed to remain in office until a handover in January, has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly said he would not resign over the scandal.
Perez’s conservative administration has spent much of this year mired in public protests and scandals over corruption allegations against senior officials, several of whom he fired during a cabinet purge in May.
Prosecutors have said it is highly probable that Perez was involved in a customs racket dubbed “La Linea,” or the line, due to a phone hotline used in the scandal, in which importers avoided paying customs duties in exchange for bribes