Rodrigo Chaves Robles testified before a three-member legislative committee that is considering whether to lift his presidential immunity and allow criminal prosecution. The committee's report will go to the full Legislative Assembly, which will vote on stripping immunity. Prosecutors allege Chaves forced an associate to divert $32,000 from a Central American Bank for Economic Integration contract to pay former presidential adviser Federico Cruz, who then bought a house. Chaves denies wrongdoing, calls the case a judicial coup, and accuses opponents of using the judiciary to oust his government. Witnesses include former communications minister Patricia Navarro and businessman Christian Bulga. The bank conducted an internal investigation provided to the attorney general.
Chaves Robles has denied any wrongdoing and accused his opponents of using the judiciary to oust his government. What we are experiencing has historic consequences, Chaves Robles said on Friday. The entire country is witnessing a legal rigging by the attorney general and the criminal court. He told his supporters outside the Legislative Assembly that his adversaries had staged a ridiculous case to carry out a judicial coup d'etat and convince the public he was a scoundrel.
The committee must deliver a report following Chaves Robles's testimony to the full Legislative Assembly, which will then vote on whether to strip him of his immunity from prosecution. A conservative economist and former minister of finance, Chaves Robles has been accused of forcing an associate to take money from a contract awarded by a development bank, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, and use it to pay his former presidential adviser, Federico Cruz.
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