La Línea corruption case
Among the accused were the retired captain Juan Carlos Monzón,[1] (at the time Baldetti's private secretary) and the directors of the Tax Administration Superintendency or Superintendencia de Administración Tributaria [es], (SAT), an entity analogous to the US Internal Revenue Service.
On 20 May 2015, the CICIG and Guatemalan Chief Prosecutor Thelma Aldana exposed another high-level corruption scandal, when they announced the Guatemalan Social Security Institute (Instituto Guatemalteco de Seguridad Social) -IGSS investigation, which found that the board of directors plotted to award a renal facility service contract to an external company that did not comply with the minimal requirements and caused the death of numerous patients.
Investigations from both entities showed that the contract had been granted by heavy bribes to some of the board members, specially IGSS President Juan de Dios Rodríguez, Pérez Molina's former private secretary.
On 21 August 2015, prosecutors and the CICIG asked for the arrest of Baldetti and the impeachment of Pérez Molina for their involvement in "La Línea case".
An intercepted phone conversation was played in which one could hear the voice of President Perez Molina asking the SAT director for personnel changes, allegedly to accommodate the smuggling network.
[7] During Álvaro Arzú's presidency (1996–2000) the smuggling ring was attacked when the National Prosecutor found evidence that implicated several high-ranking Army officers, among them general Luis Francisco Ortega Menaldo, colonel Salán Sánchez, general Efraín Ríos Montt, coronel Napoleón Rojas Méndez, major Byron Barrientos, and Mario Guillermo Ruiz Wong.
Finally, in 2001, Alfredo Moreno paid a million quetzals jail bond and was released after serving five years in prison in the Zone 18 Preventive.
Only two months later, Pérez Molina intervened in the Superintendencia de Administración Tributaria and placed military personnel in key points in customs, allegedly to increase tax collection and prevent smuggling.
In 1980, he was appointed as chief of the newly created Department of Security and Special Investigations in the Public Finances Secretariat, which allegedly was the origin of the smuggling ring.
Gramajo used the criminal enterprise for support against the Army's hard-line officers many of whom worked closely with the extreme right-wing party Movimiento de Liberación Nacional – MLN – and thus stop coup d'état attempts against president Cerezo.
[7] Thus, the two executive leaders ― Pérez Molina and Baldetti Elías ― bought an alliance to the main military groups that formed during the Guatemala Civil War: "Sindicato" and "Cofradía".
The fiscal gap in those years was as high as 7,000 million of quetzals, which was covered by treasure bonds and international loans, increasing public debt.
[11] Investigations showed that Lima Oliva came and went as he pleased in armored SUVs with a police escort; when he was apprehended outside the prison and taken to the Supreme Court building to testify along with other accused, he reportedly said several times that he was a personal friend of Pérez Molina.
[11] In early April 2015, in discussions with the United Nations about extending CICIG's mandate for another two years, both Pérez Molina and Baldetti were adamant that the International Commission was no longer needed in Guatemala.
[14] The name of the corruption ring, La Línea – "the (telephone) line" – came from the phone number, which any import company could call to ask for reduced customs duties.
[20] In December 2014, the Guatemalan newspaper El Periódico reported that Monzón had bought a lavish home in an exclusive neighborhood in Guatemala City for US$850,000.
"Eco"—, found thousand of documents revealing that besides "La Línea" a network of companies linked to Roxana Baldetti moved millions of quetzals.
[25] The same day, the Guatemalan Supreme Court withdrew immunity from judge Marta Sierra de Stalling, due to her suspicious connection to the "Impunity Law Firm".
I had to keep track, so I made a table and placed a 1 or a 2 instead of president and vice president.» As El Periódico predicted on 28 September 2015, during the second part of the trial against the La Linea members, Salvador Estuardo González —a.k.a.
González Álvarez said that he made forecasts and projections of what the companies should falsely report as profits every quarter, thus making Baldetti's economic profile believable.
"I quit because I am not willing to lead a project whose only objective is to bring members of Congress with the mission of protecting obscure interests and to look for impunity spaces for corrupt government officials close to vicepresident Roxana Baldetti".
[32] At the same press conference, Baldetti emphasized that she was not part of the millionaire fraudulent ring;[32] she showed videos from earlier in the year in which she was shown saying that the offices under her in the Government were already investigating structures like La Linea, at a time when Juan Carlos Monzón was her closest advisor.
In response, Guatemalan newspaper Diario La Hora reveals that the thirteen judges of the Supreme Court were designated thanks to the alliance between the official Partido Patriota and the main opposition party, Libertad Democrática Renovada.
[40] On October 9, 2018, Baldetti was sentenced to 15+1⁄2 years in prison after being convicted for fraud and other charges related to the issuance of government contracts to clean Lake Amatitlán.
