Guatemala will not allow the head of the the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG, to return to the country, defying an order by the constitutional court.
Late Sunday, the country’s top court ruled that President Jimmy Morales must let Ivan Velasquez back into the country.
Interior Minister Enrique Degenhart announced Monday that Morales’ administration would defy the court order. Instead, Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel said she had asked the United Nations to send a list of possible replacements for Velasquez for Guatemala’s approval.
Morales came under international condemnation when he announced in late August that he was closing the CICIG and barring Velasquez from the country.
Velasquez had conducted a number of high-profile corruption investigations, include one pending against the president.
Morales said Velasquez is “a person who attacks order and public security in the country.”
