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GUATEMALA-POLITICS-JUSTICE-CORRUPTION
Ex-Guatemala president, arrested over graft, leaves detention
GUATEMALA CITY, Aug 4, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Former Guatemalan president Alvaro
Colom, arrested in February over corruption allegations, left preventative
detention Friday night after his bond was paid, the state penitentiary system
said.
Colom, 66, left a prison located on a military base north of the capital
Guatemala City around midnight, prison spokesman Rudy Esquivel said. A
$133,000 bond had been paid hours earlier.
Colom and 10 other suspects — members of his 2008-2012 government — were
arrested in February on charges related to graft in the public transport
system. Most were released on bail.
Colom and the suspects, among them Juan Alberto Fuentes Knight, a former
finance minister and chairman of Oxfam International, are accused of fraud
and embezzlement in the 2009 purchase of hundreds of buses to ply routes in
the capital.
Four companies were given 25-year government contracts to run the
services. The buses were allegedly bought at inflated prices. The original
plan called for purchasing 3,500 buses, but in the end only 400 were
delivered, and of those only 50 are running, Citizens Action, a Guatemalan
group linked to the watchdog Transparency International, reported in
February.
Also in 2009, Colom’s center-left National Unity of Hope party tried to
pass a law exempting the transaction from taxes.
Prosecutors say of the $35 million assigned to the TransUrbano project,
$13.3 million went toward machinery, while $5.7 million went to “incompatible
expenses” and $1.2 million to private parties.
Investigations continue as the rest of the money “was spent without
stating the destination,” according to the prosecution.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1251 hrs