Guatemala judge orders former president tried for corruption

A judge in Guatemala has sent former President Otto Perez Molina and his vice president to trial for corruption involving an alleged scheme in which businesses paid bribes to avoid customs duties. Judge Miguel Angel Galvez's decision Friday comes more than two years after Guatemala's Public Prosecutor's Office and the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG, released an investigation into the alleged scheme, called "La Linea" or "The Line." Prosecutors said the corruption ring defrauded the state of several million dollars.
Both Perez Molina and former Vice President Roxana Baldetti have denied the charges against them. Among the evidence provided were thousands of wiretaps of officials in their government apparently agreeing to distribute bribes. Perez Molina, who took office in 2012, was jailed in 2015 after massive street protests.