Guatemalan Former Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Killed in Capital

Former Guatemalan anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa was shot dead in Guatemala City, reviving concern over the safety of the justice officials who take on powerful political and criminal interests in the country.

(Bloomberg) -- Former Guatemalan anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa was shot dead in Guatemala City, reviving concern over the safety of the justice officials who take on powerful political and criminal interests in the country.

The 43-year-old lawyer and former tax chief was shot along with another man at the Campo Marte sports complex Saturday, according to police. Police arrested two suspects.

Prosecutors, judges and lawyers associated with Guatemala’s anti-corruption drive have faced retaliation for years in the form of criminal cases, imprisonment or exile, underscoring the fragility of a justice system that President Bernardo Arévalo has made a priority of his government.

In May, Arévalo named Gabriel Estuardo García Luna as attorney general to replace Consuelo Porras, a longtime adversary sanctioned by the US, the European Union, Canada and others for alleged corruption and the targeting of anti-corruption and human rights figures. Porras has denied wrongdoing.

Arévalo condemned Solórzano Foppa’s killing Saturday in a post on X, calling for the shooters and those who ordered the attack to be brought to justice. 

“Those who believe terror can intimidate the people of Guatemala and the government I lead are mistaken,” he said.

Solórzano Foppa spent more than a decade in Guatemala’s Public Ministry and led criminal investigations during the period when prosecutors and the UN-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala pursued major corruption cases. Those included a customs fraud investigation that contributed to former President Otto Pérez Molina’s resignation in 2015.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said this year that Guatemala met 11% of its prosecutorial integrity criteria, compared with a 52% OECD average, and 8% of its judicial integrity criteria, versus 45% across the OECD.