\u201cToday I am the latest in a string of prosecutors who have suffered consequences for seeking truth and justice,\u201d Sandoval said at his press conference<\/a> last Friday. \u201cHistory will judge us. The results are there.\u201d Fearing for his safety, he fled the country later that night.<\/p>\n During his\u00a0three years at the helm of FECI, Sandoval took on presidents, legislators, judges, business leaders, and other powerful figures. FECI worked in tandem with the United Nations-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG, to identify, investigate, prosecute, and dismantle complex criminal networks entrenched in state institutions. In 2015, the two entities brought down sitting President Otto P\u00e9rez Molina and most of his administration for graft. Two years later, their investigations into then-President Jimmy Morales, who took office in 2016 and replaced P\u00e9rez Molina\u2019s interim successor, prompted fierce backlash from the Guatemalan government. Morales deemed CICIG commissioner Iv\u00e1n Vel\u00e1squez a threat to national security, barred him from the country, and opted not to renew CICIG\u2019s mandate. The commission shut down in 2019, and FECI took over CICIG\u2019s cases. Ever since, Sandoval has been the main target of animosity from current and potential subjects of corruption investigations.<\/p>\n \u201cAs Indigenous authorities we are very concerned about corruption,\u201d said Lorenzo Castro, the city of Solol\u00e1\u2019s Indigenous mayor, in charge not of the official municipal government but of the area\u2019s autonomous traditional Indigenous governance system. Kaqchikel authorities in Solol\u00e1 have powerful convening capacity, as do autonomous K\u2019iche authorities in the neighboring department of Totonicap\u00e1n. Mobilizations along the Pan-American Highway in the two predominantly Indigenous regions were the largest actions in Guatemala on Thursday.<\/p>\n First it was Iv\u00e1n Vel\u00e1squez and CICIG, and now it is Juan Francisco Sandoval, Castro told The Intercept at the protest in La Cuchilla, a village two miles from Los Encuentros at another key turn-off of the Pan-American Highway. Throughout the day, he and other Solol\u00e1 Indigenous authorities moved between the various protest points in their territory to monitor conditions and coordinate with community-level mayors. The removal of Sandoval was the removal of a remaining hope, they said. \u201cThe situation is critical,\u201d said Indigenous vice mayor Pedro V\u00e1squez.<\/p>\n \u201cWho would not be angry? They took our last defender away,\u201d Tom\u00e1s Saloj, a former Indigenous mayor of Solol\u00e1, told The Intercept in La Cuchilla, where protesters were taking cover under plastic sheets, umbrellas, and trees as the rain picked up. \u201cWe need to understand the situation we are facing. Now there is nothing. And if we leave things as they are, if we ignore it, imagine what they could do. What would become of Guatemala?\u201d<\/p>\n Protesters calling for the president to resign block traffic in the department of Totonicap\u00e1n, Guatemala, on July 29, 2021.<\/p>\n \nPhoto: Luis Vargas\/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n Sandoval\u2019s ouster sparked not only national outrage but also international condemnation. The most concrete response to date has been that of the U.S. government, which announced the temporary suspension of cooperation with the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office while it conducts a review. The removal of Sandoval \u201cfits a pattern of behavior that indicates a lack of commitment to the rule of law and independent judicial and prosecutorial processes,\u201d State Department deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter told reporters<\/a> at a press briefing Tuesday. \u201cAs a result, we have lost confidence in the attorney general and their decision \u2014 and intention to cooperate with the U.S. Government and fight corruption in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cI think the [Guatemalan] government is worried about what will happen,\u201d said Edie Cux, a lawyer and president of the Guatemalan anti-corruption group Acci\u00f3n Ciudadana, noting that on Thursday Porras and Giammattei both attempted to minimize the fallout in written responses to the suspension. The Biden administration had pledged to prioritize anti-corruption efforts in northern Central America as a driver of U.S.-bound migration, as Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted<\/a> during her first official foreign trip to Guatemala last month.<\/p>\n![\"TONONICAPAN,](\"https:\/\/prod01-cdn05.cdn.firstlook.org\/wp-uploads\/sites\/1\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-1234298579_.jpg\")
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