GUATEMALA CITY — In a blunt rebuke to President Jimmy Morales, Guatemala’s constitutional Court ordered that the head of a U.N.-backed anti-corruption commission be let back in the country two weeks after Morales barred him as he moved to defang the investigative body. The unanimous ruling late Sunday by the court’s five magistrates marked the second time in as many years that the court has reversed Morales’ efforts to keep Ivan Velasquez out of Guatemala. The commission’s chairman has pressed a number of high-profile graft probes, including one pending against the president himself. Last year, Morales had declared Velasquez persona non grata and tried to have him expelled from Guatemala, but that move was blocked by the constitutional Court. The U.N. defended CICIG and its commissioner, saying the body has played “a pivotal role in the fight against impunity in Guatemala.”

Source: National Post September 17, 2018 02:13 UTC