Protests bring pressure on Guatemala president amid scandals

Protests bring pressure on Guatemala president amid scandals
By SONIA PEREZ D. and PETER ORSI, Associated Press | June 11, 2015 | Updated: June 11, 2015 11:44pm

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Every Saturday for nearly two months, Constitution Square outside Guatemala City's National Palace has overflowed with thousands of protesters demanding an end to corruption and the resignation of President Otto Perez Molina.

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Angered by recent revelations of multimillion-dollar corruption scandals and emboldened by the jailing of dozens of suspects and the resignation of the vice president, the protesters show no sign of letting up. And they're bringing increasing pressure on the government, culminating in this week's Supreme Court ruling green-lighting a congressional inquiry that could lead to impeachment proceedings against Perez Molina.

"It is an expression of accumulated frustrations in mostly urban populations ... that finally found a way of expressing itself publicly in a massive way," said Eduardo Stein, a former Guatemalan vice president and foreign minister. "There were people from many sectors of society fed up with corruption."

Perez Molina has not been implicated of any wrongdoing and insists he intends to serve out the remainder of his term, which ends in early 2016. But protesters blame him anyway since the scandals involved government officials, and it is an opposition-led Congress that will decide his political fate.

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Protests-bring-pressure-on-Guatemala-president-6322759.php