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Guatemala Arrests Ex-Strongman’s Son On Corruption Charges
GUATEMALA CITY – Retired Gen. Enrique Rios Sosa, son of former Guatemalan strongman Efrain Rios Montt, was one of three military men arrested here Thursday on charges they embezzled some $15 million from army accounts.
The general and Cols. Miguel Angel Salguero and Pedro Catalan are accused of carrying out the diversion of funds during the 2000-2004 administration of President Alfonso Portillo, widely viewed as a puppet of Rios Montt.
Rios Sosa was then finance chief in the Defense Ministry, while the two colonels headed the army’s finance office.
Reporters were barred from their arraignment, but court sources told Efe that prosecutors asked for the men to be held without bail.
Portillo, who fled to Mexico almost immediately after the end of his presidential term, was extradited to Guatemala late last year and is currently out on bail pending trial for allegedly stealing $15 million in public funds.
Despite his having presided over the bloodiest phase of his country’s 1960-1996 civil war, Rios Montt remains safely ensconced in the Guatemalan Congress. EFE
GUATEMALA CITY – Retired Gen. Enrique Rios Sosa, son of former Guatemalan strongman Efrain Rios Montt, was one of three military men arrested here Thursday on charges they embezzled some $15 million from army accounts.
The general and Cols. Miguel Angel Salguero and Pedro Catalan are accused of carrying out the diversion of funds during the 2000-2004 administration of President Alfonso Portillo, widely viewed as a puppet of Rios Montt.
Rios Sosa was then finance chief in the Defense Ministry, while the two colonels headed the army’s finance office.
Reporters were barred from their arraignment, but court sources told Efe that prosecutors asked for the men to be held without bail.
Portillo, who fled to Mexico almost immediately after the end of his presidential term, was extradited to Guatemala late last year and is currently out on bail pending trial for allegedly stealing $15 million in public funds.
Despite his having presided over the bloodiest phase of his country’s 1960-1996 civil war, Rios Montt remains safely ensconced in the Guatemalan Congress. EFE