ZCZC
BFF-19
SWEDEN-GUATEMALA-DIPLOMACY
Stockholm recalls ambassador to Guatemala
STOCKHOLM, Feb 17, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Sweden said Sunday it had recalled its
ambassador to Guatemala for consultations, citing the “political situation in
the country and bilateral relations” Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said.
Relations plunged last May when Guatemala gave ambassador Anders Kompass 30
days to leave, unhappy about Sweden’s contribution to the UN’s International
Committee on Imprisonment in Guatemala (CICIG) to investigate corruption and
organised crime in the Central American country.
Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales notified the UN in January that he was
closing down the anti-corruption mission, which started in 2007 and has
worked with the prosecutor’s office on graft and organised crime cases.
In May, Guatemala accused Kompass of saying Guatemalan society itself was
corrupt.
Kompass is a former UN official who turned whistleblower five years ago
over the sexual abuse of minors by French UN troops in the Central African
Republic and resigned from the organisation in 2016 saying wrongdoers had not
been held to account.
BSS/AFP/RY/1610 hrs