Guatemala's ex-president, Alvaro Colom, was arrested on Tuesday following a larger corruption investigation. Also detained was Juan Alberto Fuentes, a former finance minister who is now chairman of the anti-poverty organization Oxfam International.

Colom, 66, was president of Guatemala from 2008 to 2012. He and several members of his cabinet have now fallen under suspicion for a dubious public transport deal in 2009.

In all, 10 arrests were made over fraud and embezzlement charges for the purchase of hundreds of buses ordered for Guatemala City. Four companies signed 25-year government contracts to operate the TransUrbano transport system, a transaction Colom's National Unity of Hope party tried to exempt from taxes.

More than half of ministers detained

The other suspects compromise nine people from Colom's 13-member cabinet, including the ex-ministers of education, defense, labor, health and the environment, who all signed off on the deal. The arrest of former finance chief Fuentes has placed extra strain on Oxfam, already reeling from sex abuse claims from its mission in Haiti.

The ex-leader was arrested at his home in an upscale neighborhood in the capital. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Colom follows a pattern of corruption charges against Guatemalan leaders. Colom's immediate successor Otto Perez is currently in jail awaiting trial for graft allegations, and the country's country president, Jimmy Morales, is facing claims of illicit campaign financing and attempting to expel a UN-backed prosecutor trying to put him on trial for fraud.

es/kms (AFP, Reuters)</s>Former Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom was arrested Tuesday in connection with the Transurbano corruption case, officials said.</s>Guatemala’s fight against corruption has intensified with the arrest of a former president and nine of his ex-ministers.

Alvaro Colom and members of his former cabinet are suspected of having embezzled funds and committed fraud while helping set up a public bus system in Guatemala City in 2010.

Ivan Velasquez, head of Guatemala’s international commission against impunity (CICIG), said on Tuesday: “[Colom] intervened personally and institutionally to facilitate the fraudulent procedure of creating the agreement.”

Prosecutors said there are questions around how the government auctioned off concessions and granted subsidies for the buses.

The current chairman of Oxfam International and former Guatemalan finance minister Juan Alberto Fuentes was among those arrested.

Fuentes detention comes as Oxfam is already reeling from a sexual abuse scandal in Haiti and elsewhere.

Guatemala is no stranger to corruption scandals. Over the past decade, international investigators have been working with local prosecutors to peel back the layers of corruption that plague the small Central American country.

He is now on trial, accused of stealing millions of dollars from the country’s customs offices.

Current president, Jimmy Morales, tried to kick out Velasquez after he pushed to remove Morales’ immunity to face prosecution in another corruption investigation.

Analysts say these political arrests are far from over.

“I think the CICIG and the Attorney General’s office are just scratching the surface of this issue,” said Arturo Matute of the International Crisis Group.

“Without a doubt there are many more investigations under way which will take years to uncover.”

The upcoming selection of a new attorney general will be pivotal if these investigations are to continue.

Experts say Guatemalans need to be vigilant to ensure the country’s next top prosecutor has their interests at heart, and not those of the political elite.</s>Former Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom was arrested Tuesday in connection with the Transurbano corruption case, officials said.

Colom was expected to visit Honduras this week as a special OAS representative to direct discussions between its government, led by Juan Orlando Hernandez, and the Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH).

The Attorney General's Office and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) on Tuesday carried out 14 raids to capture a number of individuals, including members of the former president's Cabinet.

Up to now, authorities have confirmed the arrest of former Ministers Juan Alberto Fuentes Knight (Finance), Salvador Gandara Gaitan (President's Office), Ana Francisca del Rosario Ordoñez (Education), Abraham Valenzuela (Defense), Edgar Alfredo Rodriguez (Labor), Oscar Velasquez (Economy), Celso David Cerezo Mulet (Health), Geronimo Lancerio Chingo (Culture) and Luis Alberto Ferrate (Environment).

The Transurbano is a public transport organization in Guatemala City run by the Guatemalan Integrated Bus System and promoted by the Guatemalan government during the 2008-2012 Colom administration, and by the Urban Bus Entrepreneurs Association. Travel is paid with a charge card.

The authorities have not yet provided further details about the case, nor the specific crimes those under arrest are accused of committing.

A typical case is Fuentes Knight, the president of Oxfam International, who is accused of taking part in the Transurbano corruption scheme when he was finance minister during the Alvaro Colom government. The Transurbano was a model of urban transport implemented during the administration of Colom's National Unity of Hope (UNE) party.

Upon arriving at court, Fuentes Knight said that when he left office he asked for an investigation into the supposed "anomalies" that began to appear, associated with the company operating the transport service.

"When I resigned, I asked for an investigation and that no further funds be forwarded to Transurbano. Naturally, the Comptroller's Office had no information on the matter," something Fuentes Knight said he didn't report because he himself didn't have sufficient information at the time.</s>Prosecutors in Guatemala have detained ex-president Alvaro Colom and almost his entire former cabinet in a corruption case involving a bus contract.

Prosecutors in Guatemala have detained ex-president Alvaro Colom and almost his entire former cabinet in a corruption case involving a bus contract.

Colom, who governed from 2008 to 2012, is the latest in a series of former presidents to face legal problems.

He was recently named by the Organisation of American States as an envoy to Honduras, in a bid to help sort out disputed elections there. Special prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval, who said Colom was arrested on Tuesday, is looking into the questionable purchases of public buses for Guatemala City.

Mr Sandoval said the detentions included the ex-interior minister and the former ministers of finance, defence, economy, education, labour, environment, health and sports and culture. The case centres around a public bus company known as Transurbano.

The government auctioned off 25-year concessions for Guatemala City bus routes and the private companies that won the contracts were later exempted from taxes. Prosecutors say the process was deeply flawed and included subsidies and other measures that benefited public servants.

A customs fraud scandal that allegedly sent kickbacks to then-president Otto Perez Molina and vice president Roxana Baldetti led both to resign in 2015. They have been jailed awaiting trial but more than 100 defence filings have delayed the trial.

Alfonso Portillo, Guatemala’s president from 2000 to 2004, was extradited to the US and pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy in 2014.

He admitted accepting $2.5 million in bribes from the government of Taiwan to continue to recognise the Asian nation diplomatically.
Former President Alvaro Colom and his entire government cabinet were arrested for their alleged participation in a new corruption case investigated by CICIG and the MP. They were sent to preventive detention at the Mariscal Zavala Military Center.