NEW YORK, April 19 (NNN-TELESUR) – The United States Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York stated Wednesday that Mario Amilcar Estrada Orellana, a Guatemalan presidential candidate, was detained after being charged for soliciting campaign funding from Mexican drug cartels and offering support for drug trafficking towards the U.S.
The Guatemalan general elections taking place on June 16 would be Estrada’s fourth attempt at the presidency, but his race has now probably been completely knocked out after he was arrested in Miami Wednesday, alongside Juan Pablo Gonzalez, another Guatemalan and member of the right-wing National Change Union (UCN) party.
“As alleged, Estrada and Gonzalez conspired to solicit Sinaloa Cartel money to finance a corrupt scheme to elect Estrada president of Guatemala,” stated Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman. As recompense for the cartel’s support, “the two allegedly promised to assist the cartel in using Guatemalan ports and airports to export tons of cocaine into the U.S.”
As part of the alleged conspiracy between Estrada, Gonzalez, and the alleged cartel members, they “attempted to arrange the assassinations of political rivals. Thanks to the DEA, Estrada stands no chance of election in Guatemala, but he and Gonzalez face justice in the United States,” stated Attorney Berman.
According to a statement from the Department of Justice, since December 2018 the U.S. Drug Enforcement Department (DEA) “has been investigating several individuals who attempted to solicit funding from international drug cartels to support ESTRADA’s presidential campaign.”
“During certain of these negotiations, members of the Estrada Conspiracy, including Estrada and Gonzalez, interacted with purported members and associates of the Sinaloa Cartel – a powerful international drug-trafficking organization based in Mexico – who were, in fact, confidential sources (the “CSes”) acting at the DEA’s direction”
U.S. officials said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency assisted with the investigation, as well as the Guatemalan government.
Estrada, a 58-year-old former congressman, has lagged far behind in presidential opinion polls, with less than 3 percent support in one recent survey. The party, which Estrada founded, holds just six seats in the 158-member Congress, and has typically supported the policies of Morales’ government.
The UCN party has denied receiving illicit money. According to local media, Javier Castillo vice-presidential candidate for the UCN stated that the party did not know what Estrada was doing in the U.S. and that his detention was a surprise for the political organization.
“The party has never received a single penny illegally. We have run an austere campaign (…), the little money we have received is from the political donations and what other candidates have humbly given,” he said.
On June 16, their ninth elections since the return to democracy in 1986, Guatemalans will elect their next president and vice-president, along with 160 members of Congress, 340 municipal authorities and the members of Parliament.
NNN-TELESUR
