Showdown in Guatemala over investigation of president

Guatemalans elected a former television comic as president in 2015 on his promises of honesty and intolerance for the corruption and impunity practiced by his predecessor.

But now the president, Jimmy Morales, has hurtled Guatemala toward a new crisis, ordering the widely respected head of a United Nations-backed anticorruption panel expelled after it moved to investigate him.

The president’s order on Sunday against the panel chief, Iván Velásquez, created a headspinning uproar of opposition and was temporarily blocked by the Constitutional Court — the nation’s top judges.

Source: New York Times