The arrest warrant was issued by the judge of Criminal First Instance for Drug Trafficking and Crimes against the Environment of Guatemala.
Mexico extradited former President of the Guatemalan Congress Luis Rabbé (2015-2016) on Thursday, August 8th,Arrested in 2018 in Mexican territory for his connection to a plot of corruption with fictitious jobsThe Guatemalan Ministry of the Interior reported.
According to the prosecution,Rabbi authorized irregular appointments of at least 164 MPsAmong them were some who did not meet the requirements for the position and others who only charged wages each month without going to work.
“Exputee Luis Rabbé is extradited to Guatemala,” the ministry said in a statement, in which he detailed that the operation was coordinated by Interpol sections of both countries.
Upon reaching the courts in Guatemala’s capital, the politician attacked Interpol and local authorities for his extradition, telling journalists that a Mexican court had granted him the “political refugee category.”
“Why am I here despite being a political refugee?, ask Interpol,” because “you can’t return a political refugee to your country.”
Luis Rabbé,
Former right-wing MP and presidential candidate in 2007
He argued that the former Guatemalan Attorney General, Thelma Aldana (2014-2018), claimed thatThere were about “30,000 ghost places in the stateWhy didn’t you find out all the other ghost squares, why did you dedicate herself to me?”
The 68-year-old politician, who wore gray hair and careless beard, was delivered by Mexico at a border crossing in San Marcos (west) and then airlifted to Guatemala City, the wallet added.
Images released by the ministry showed the handcuffed former MP, dressed in a black T-shirt and escorted by police to a helicopter.
The prosecution indicated on social network X that the former deputy is pointed out of the crimes of“abuse of authority, illegal appointments and embezzlement for subtraction”.
President of Congress between January 2015 and the same month of 2016, Rabbé was arrested on July 23, 2018 in Monterrey, northern Mexico.
Rabbé left the country in August 2016 after losing immunity as an MP and was soon declared a fugitive. Mexican justice endorsed the extradition on May 8, 2019, but various legal remedies delayed its surrender to Guatemala.
A Guatemalan judge had issued an arrest warrant for his responsibility in the plot of illegal positions of officials when he presided over parliament.
The investigations were supported at that time by the extinct International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), an entity endorsed by the UN created in 2007 and which contributed to the revelation of corruption cases.
The CICIG was dismantled in 2019 by then-wing President Jimmy Morales (2016-2020).
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo