Guatemalan former anti-corruption prosecutor killed in capital

(Bloomberg) — Former Guatemalan anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa was shot dead in Guatemala City, reviving concerns about the safety of justice officials taking on the country’s powerful political and criminal interests.

Police said the 43-year-old lawyer and former tax chief was shot dead along with another man at the Campo Marte sports complex on Saturday. Police arrested two suspects.

For years, prosecutors, judges and lawyers linked to Guatemala’s anti-corruption efforts have faced retaliation 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 U.S., European Union, Canada and others for alleged corruption and attacks on anti-corruption and human rights figures. Porras has pleaded not guilty.

Arévalo condemned Saturday’s killing of Solórzan Foppa in a post on X and called for the shooter and those who ordered the attack to be brought to justice.

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

Solórzano Foppa spent more than a decade at Guatemala’s Ministry of Public Administration, leading criminal investigations during a period when prosecutors and the UN-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala were pursuing major corruption cases. These included a customs fraud investigation that contributed to the resignation of former president Otto Pérez Molina in 2015.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reported this year that Guatemala met 11% of the prosecutorial integrity criteria, compared to the 52% OECD average, and 8% of the judicial integrity criteria, compared to 45% within the OECD.

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