In a week full of news from Guatemala, here’s one more. Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo has been extradited to the United States, where he faces charges of laundering tens of millions of dollars through U.S. banks. The former president is accused of laundering $70 million in Guatemalan funds through U.S. banks. Although he was cleared in 2011 by a Guatemalan court of local embezzlement charges, the U.S. extradition request of 2009 stood.
The U.S. Embassy in Guatemala said that “the decision is an important affirmation of the rule of law and due process in Guatemala.” He was taken from a military hospital and sent by plane to New York.
Read the full story of the Guatemalan Ex-President’s Extradition to the U.S. on NPR.org