“Where legitimate institutions are weak and fragile then you’re going to have criminal institutions moving into that vacuum and that’s what’s happening there,” said George Grayson, a professor at the College of William and Mary in Virginia who has written about Mexico’s drug cartels.
On Sunday, Colom fired Interior Minister Raul Velasquez, who had signed a US$6.2 million contract with a private company to buy fuel for the country’s national police. Authorities say the company embezzled the money. Velazquez was not charged.
In a corruption case reaching the highest levels of government in Guatemala, former president Alfonso Portillo was arrested in February after being indicted in a US court on money laundering charges. He already was on trial on corruption charges brought by Guatemalan prosecutors.
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