Guatemalan President Authorizes Extradition of Former President to the US on Money Laundering Charges

  On November 16, 2011, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom authorized the extradition to the United States of Alfonso Portillo,[1] the former President of Guatemala from 2000 to 2004.[2] On December 2009, an indictment was returned in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accusing Mr. Portillo of using U.S. bank accounts to launder more than U.S. 70 million (or $70 m quetzals) from the Guatemalan Government.[3] Thereafter, the U.S. government requested the extradition of Mr. Portillo.[4]                 [1]               Alfonso Portillo's extradition was processed with three more extraditions, two for drug trafficking and another for murder, all of them to the US.                   [2]               The Portillo administration is considered by local analysts as one of the "most corrupt" in the recent history of Guatemala, given the calculations that during the four-year term government officials embezzled more than $500 million.                   [3]               According to the US investigations, financial transactions made by Portillo began in 2000 in New York banks to accounts of his ex-wife Eugenia Padua and his daughter. Tracking the results, the investigation ended in banks of Luxembourg, England, Switzerland and Lichtenstein.                   [4]               Alfonso Portillo also has a pending trial in France for money laundering.