CICIG and Attorney General present evidence against Pérez Molina and Baldetti

On August 21, 2015, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and Attorney General Thelma Aldana presented enough evidence to convince the public that both President Otto Pérez Molina and former Vice President Roxana Baldetti were the actual leaders of the 'La Línea' corruption scandal. Baldetti was arrested the same day, and an impeachment was requested for the president. Several cabinet members resigned, and the clamor for the president's resignation grew after Pérez Molina defiantly assured the nation in a televised message broadcast on August 23, 2015, that he was not going to resign. Thousands of protesters took to the streets again, demanding the increasingly isolated president's resignation. Guatemala's Congress named a commission of five legislators to consider whether to remove the president's immunity from prosecution, and the Supreme Court approved. A major day of action kicked off early on August 27, with marches and roadblocks across the country. Urban groups who had spearheaded regular protests since the scandal broke in April sought to unite with rural and indigenous organizations who orchestrated the roadblocks. The strike in Guatemala City was full of a diverse and peaceful crowd ranging from the indigenous poor to the well-heeled, and it included many students from public and private universities. Hundreds of schools and businesses closed in support of the protests. The Comité Coordinador de Asociaciones Agrícolas, Comerciales, Industriales y Financieras (CACIF), Guatemala's most powerful business leaders, issued a statement demanding that Pérez Molina step down and urged Congress to withdraw his immunity from prosecution. The attorney general's office released its own statement, calling for the president's resignation 'to prevent ungovernability that could destabilize the nation.' As pressure mounted, the president's former ministers of defense and of the interior, who had been named in the corruption investigation and resigned, abruptly called for his resignation. However, Pérez Molina also managed to get support from entrepreneurs not affiliated with the private sector chambers, such as Mario López Estrada, the billionaire owner of cellular phone companies and grandchild of former dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera, who had some of his executives assume the vacated cabinet positions. #Mooflife #MomentOfLife #LaLínea #PérezMolina #CACIF