GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales on Sunday appeared to defy a court ruling that he not expel the head of an influential U.N. anti-graft unit investigating his campaign financing, deepening an institutional crisis in the Central American nation. Many politicians in Guatemala consider the foreign-led body, which is unusual among U.N. bodies for its powers to bring cases to prosecutors, to be a violation of national sovereignty. “CICIG has played a transformational role in combating corruption and impunity in Guatemala,” he said in a statement. In its ruling, the country’s highest civil court said the foreign, defense and interior ministers should not participate in removing Velasquez from the country. With powers to prepare crime and corruption cases, CICIG was instrumental in removing Guatemala’s former president, Otto Perez Molina, from office in 2015 after identifying him as a key player in an alleged multimillion-dollar corruption racket. A judge this year gave prosecutors the green light to move ahead with a corruption probe of President Jimmy Morales' son and brother. In a nearly four-minute address in which he was flanked by Guatemalan flags, Morales accused Velasquez of exceeding his mandate.
The Constitutional Court suspends the order made by President Jimmy Morales to expel the U.N. anti-corruption commission head.