Guatemala president resigns in the face of fraud allegations

President Otto Perez Molina

The President of Guatemala, President Otto Perez Molina has resigned in the face of a fraud scandal. Jorge Ortega says Perez Molina submitted his resignation at midnight local time after a judge issued an order to detain him in a corruption case that has brought his government to the brink.
Guatemala's Congress had earlier on Tuesday voted to strip President Otto Pérez Molina of his immunity. According to the Guatemalan Attorney General's Office and a U.N. investigating commission, Pérez Molina and a group of close aides within his administration received bribes in exchange for lowering taxes for companies seeking to import products into Guatemala, the CNN reports. In a message broadcast on Guatemalan national TV and radio last month, the President denied the charges and suggested he's the target of a plot by his political enemies aided by foreign interests.
"I categorically deny and reject the accusation that I was involved (in a corruption scheme) and having received any money from that customs fraud scheme," he said.
Pérez Molina will have to appear on accusations of illicit association, fraud and receiving bribe money in a customs fraud scandal that has already led to the jailing of his vice president and the resignation of some Cabinet ministers