Colombia and Guatemala Reject Arrest Warrants for Attorney General and Ex-Defense Minister

Written on 06/03/2025
Josep Freixes
Colombia and Guatemala reject the arrest warrant issued by the Guatemalan prosecutor’s office against Colombian officials. Credit: Presidency of Colombia.

Following the controversy sparked by a Guatemalan court issuing arrest warrants for Colombia’s Attorney General, Luz Adriana Camargo, and Colombia’s Ambassador to the Vatican and former Defense Minister, Ivan Velasquez, the government of Guatemala rejected the decision.

In a statement issued last night, it was announced that the decision by the Third Appeals Court lacked “legal basis” and constituted a corrupt scheme by its Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro stated that Guatemala’s prosecution service “obeys crime, not the citizenry,” referring to its arrest order against the two Colombian officials.

Colombia and Guatemala governments reject arrest orders against Colombian officials

Yesterday, Monday, June 2, Guatemala’s prosecution service unexpectedly issued arrest warrants against Colombia’s Attorney General, Luz Adriana Camargo, and former Defense Minister and current Ambassador to the Vatican Ivan Velasquez, over alleged links to the Odebrecht mega-corruption case.

This decades-old case, which implicates all of Latin America and governments on all sides, had previously seen investigations and accusations in Colombia, but no one has ever been convicted for it.

However, Guatemala’s own government, led by President Bernardo Arevalo, discredited its own Attorney General’s order, arguing that it “lacks legal basis,” calling the decision a corrupt plot by its Public Prosecutor’s Office.

“These measures lack legal basis and violate the Agreement between the United Nations Organization and the Government of Guatemala regarding the establishment of an International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, as well as the purposes and principles of justice and International Law contained in the Charter of the United Nations Organization and the Organization of American States,” the Guatemalan government stated

Guatemala further maintains this is a scheme to cover up corruption cases investigated at the time by the two Colombian public servants, which linked former high-level officials in the Central American country to Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht.

“These actions are carried out with an evident political objective, without support in national or international legal frameworks, and add to the string of actions by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Attorney General of the Republic, and judges associated with corruption who have distorted the meaning of justice in Guatemala, demonstrating the criminalization and abuse of criminal law—so often noted and sanctioned nationally and internationally,” asserts the Guatemalan government’s statement.

Colombia rejects Guatemalan Prosecution’s decision

The Colombian government also expressed its outright rejection of the Guatemalan prosecution’s order.

Yesterday, shortly after the order became known, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, led by Laura Sarabia, issued a statement asserting that the Guatemalan prosecutor’s decision represented a “worrying instrumentalization of international judicial mechanisms, contrary to the spirit of legality, cooperation, and justice that should prevail in relations between States.”

According to Sarabia’s message, there is “deep concern” within the Colombian Executive Branch, which forcefully rejected the Guatemalan Prosecutor’s decision.

The official statement maintains that the action lacks legal foundation: “This measure not only represents a serious deviation from international law standards but also violates fundamental human rights.”

Early this morning, Colombian President Gustavo Petro spoke out via his social media accounts. Citing the Guatemalan government’s official statement discrediting its prosecutor’s office’s order, Petro rejected the decision of the Central American country’s Public Ministry.

“The prosecutor’s office in Guatemala, like the prosecutor’s office in Colombia during Barbosa’s time, like the prosecutor’s office that arrested President Pedro Castillo, and others, answer to crime and not to the citizenry,” wrote the Colombian president. He referenced the role of Francisco Barbosa, the former Colombian attorney general with whom he had fierce political clashes, and Pedro Castillo, the Peruvian president detained in December 2022.

“Multinational drug trafficking corporations are attempting to take over judicial powers and governments to conduct and launder their hidden businesses with impunity. The crimes committed by the mafias against the Latin American people are crimes against humanity; they are international crimes and must be tried by international criminal justice, which we must help fund and strengthen,” he added.