The Public Prosecutor’s Office (Prosecutor) of Guatemala, whose leadership is sanctioned by the United States on corruption charges, raided the headquarters of the international organization in defense of children Save the Children on Thursday, for allegations of abuse against children.
The raid was confirmed by the prosecutor of the Public Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, also sanctioned by the US, in a message without further details where he pointed out that the case is a “transnational investigation.”
Curruchiche added that they are “in kidnapping of evidence” at the headquarters of the non-governmental organization, in follow-up to a case of “great significance” related to “vulnerations and abuses against Guatemalan children.”
The prosecutor did not provide any more specific information and only indicated that “support” has been requested from the Texas Prosecutor’s Office in the United States in “the investigation,” which is born of an alleged complaint to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The headquarters of Save the Children is a few kilometers from the center of Guatemala City and is currently under the command of the authorities, according to EFE.
Curruchiche has been sanctioned in more than a dozen countries with the prohibition of his entry for his role in trying to avoid the investiture of the current Guatemalan president, Bernardo Arévalo de León, which was finally successfully carried out last January.
He has also been part of the prosecution of lawyers, prosecutors and journalists, including communicator José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, in prison since 2022 for an alleged case of money laundering only five days after he launched strong criticism of the president at the time, Alejandro Giammattei.
In the last week, the Secretary General of the Attorney General’s Office, Ángel Pineda, also with a ban on entry into the United States, indicated in local media that the case would be linked to migrants in the United States, specifically in Texas.