NEW YORK — A presidential candidate in Guatemala has been arrested in Miami on drug charges.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman says Mario Amilcar Estrada Orellana promised to let a drug cartel use Guatemalan ports and airports.

He says Estrada and a second defendant also conspired to try to arrange the assassinations of political rivals. Estrada was arrested Wednesday in Miami along with fellow defendant Juan Pablo Gonzalez Mayorga.

Both were charged with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and a related weapons offense.

It was unclear who will represent them when the men appear before a federal magistrate in Miami on Thursday.

Berman credited the Drug Enforcement Agency with using confidential sources to convince Estrada and Gonzalez that they were dealing with members of a powerful Mexico-based drug cartel. </s> By The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A presidential candidate in Guatemala has been arrested in Miami on drug charges. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman says Mario Amilcar Estrada Orellana promised to let a drug cartel use Guatemalan…

NEW YORK (AP) — A presidential candidate in Guatemala has been arrested in Miami on drug charges.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman says Mario Amilcar Estrada Orellana promised to let a drug cartel use Guatemalan ports and airports.

He says Estrada and a second defendant also conspired to try to arrange the assassinations of political rivals. Estrada was arrested Wednesday in Miami along with fellow defendant Juan Pablo Gonzalez Mayorga.

Both were charged with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and a related weapons offense.

It was unclear who will represent them when the men appear before a federal magistrate in Miami on Thursday.

Berman credited the Drug Enforcement Agency with using confidential sources to convince Estrada and Gonzalez that they were dealing with members of a powerful Mexico-based drug cartel.

Copyright © 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> U.S. authorities have detained former Guatemalan presidential candidate Manuel Baldizon to face charges in Guatemala.

The U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City said Sunday the detention occurred at an undisclosed location in accordance with an Interpol request.

The charges involve Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which has acknowledged paying bribes across the region and elsewhere to win public works contracts.

Baldizon is a tycoon-turned-political populist who lost a runoff election in 2011 to Otto Perez Molina, the former president who is himself facing trial in a separate corruption case.

A statement from prosecutors alleges Baldizon took bribes from Odebrecht to help win highway construction contracts in Guatemala. He faces charges of conspiracy, receiving bribes and money laundering in the first Odebrecht-related corruption case in Guatemala. </s> GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - U.S. authorities have detained former Guatemalan presidential candidate Manuel Baldizon to face charges in Guatemala.

The U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City said Sunday the detention occurred at an undisclosed location in accordance with an Interpol request.

The charges involve Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which has acknowledged paying bribes across the region and elsewhere to win public works contracts.

FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2011 file photo, Manuel Baldizon, presidential candidate of Guatemala's Democratic Freedom Revival Party, gives a press conference in Guatemala City. Baldizon was arrested on Jan. 20, 2018 at a U.S. airport for immigration irregularities, and after deportation to Guatemala he will face corruption charges in connection with Odebrecht. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)

Baldizon is a tycoon-turned-political populist who lost a runoff election in 2011 to Otto Perez Molina, the former president who is himself facing trial in a separate corruption case.

A statement from prosecutors alleges Baldizon took bribes from Odebrecht to help win highway construction contracts in Guatemala. He faces charges of conspiracy, receiving bribes and money laundering in the first Odebrecht-related corruption case in Guatemala. </s> A court in Guatemala says an arrest warrant has been issued for a former Guatemalan prosecutor who is running for president.

But because Thelma Aldana was formally registered Tuesday by the election board as a candidate in the June elections, under Guatemalan law she has immunity from prosecution.

Aldana was nominated by the Seed Movement party and is running second in polls.

A spokeswoman for Guatemala's Supreme Court says the warrant against Aldana is related to a corruption investigation involving illegal hiring.

Sixty-three-year-old Thelma Aldana was Guatemala's top prosecutor from 2014 to 2018. During that time, she jailed then-President Otto Perez Molina and most of his Cabinet on corruption charges. Perez Molina resigned in 2015. </s> GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - A Guatemalan court said Tuesday that an arrest warrant has been issued for a former Guatemalan prosecutor who is running for president.

But because Thelma Aldana was formally registered Tuesday by the election board as a candidate in the June elections, under Guatemalan law she has immunity from prosecution.

Aldana was nominated by the Seed Movement party and is running second in polls.

A spokeswoman for Guatemala's Supreme Court said the warrant against Aldana is related to a corruption investigation involving illegal hiring.

Aldana, 63, was Guatemala's top prosecutor from 2014 to 2018. During that time, she jailed then-President Otto Perez Molina and most of his Cabinet on corruption charges. Perez Molina resigned in 2015.

Thelma Aldana, Guatemala's former chief prosecutor, listens to a journalist's question as she gives a press conference during her campaign event for president in Guatemala City, Sunday, March 10, 2019. Aldana is a candidate with The Seed Movement party ahead of June 16 presidential elections. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros) </s> GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Former Guatemalan presidential candidate Manuel Baldizon, who is wanted on graft charges, has sought asylum in the United States after he was arrested while trying to enter the country, authorities from both nations said.

FILE PHOTO: Renewed Democratic Liberation (LIDER) party's presidential candidate Manuel Baldizon addresses supporters during a political rally in Villa Nueva, on the outskirts of Guatemala City, September 4, 2015. REUTERS/Jorge Dan Lopez/File Photo

Baldizon, a wealthy businessman who ran for president twice, was detained at the airport in Miami on Saturday after flying in from the Dominican Republic, Guatemala prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Yesenia Enriquez said.

Guatemala’s charges against Baldizon are part of a giant corruption probe involving Brazilian construction company Odebrecht SA, according to the prosecutor’s office. The scandal has claimed high-level political scalps across Latin America.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security arrested Baldizon following an Interpol alert resulting from a Guatemalan arrest warrant, the U.S. embassy in Guatemala said.

“The United States will follow established international protocols to return Mr. Baldizon to Guatemala to face justice,” the embassy said, referring all further questions to Guatemalan authorities.

Baldizon requested asylum in the United States, Guatemala’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which falls under Homeland Security’s jurisdiction, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Baldizon is wanted in Guatemala on charges of illicit association, bribery and money laundering, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The statement said former Infrastructure Minister and brief presidential candidate Alejandro Sinibaldi was also wanted on suspected corruption charges stemming from the Odebrecht investigation, and was now a fugitive.

The prosecutor’s office did not give any information on the link with Odebrecht, which has admitted to paying multimillion-dollar bribes across Latin America and has already spent $3.5 billion for settlements in the United States, Brazil and Switzerland.

The prosecutor’s office carried out 10 raids on Saturday and arrested three people as part of the Odebrecht investigation, the statement added.

In 2016, the head of Guatemala’s special anti-corruption prosecutor’s office told Reuters he had already been investigating Odebrecht’s bribes to a government official, and President Jimmy Morales said his administration would check all of the company’s contracts. </s> GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A Guatemalan court said Tuesday that an arrest warrant has been issued for a former Guatemalan prosecutor who is running for president.

But because Thelma Aldana was formally registered Tuesday by the election board as a candidate in the June elections, under Guatemalan law she has immunity from prosecution.

Aldana was nominated by the Seed Movement party and is running second in polls.

A spokeswoman for Guatemala’s Supreme Court said the warrant against Aldana is related to a corruption investigation. The warrant was issued Monday alleging a form of embezzlement, but authorities have not provided specific details of the charges.

Aldana, 63, was Guatemala’s top prosecutor from 2014 to 2018. During that time, she jailed then-President Otto Perez Molina and most of his Cabinet on corruption charges. Perez Molina resigned in 2015. </s> A woman jogs past political campaign posters at Reforma avenue in Guatemala City, early Saturday, June 15, 2019. The road to Sunday’s presidential election in Guatemala has been a chaotic flurry of court rulings and shenanigans, illegal party-switching and allegations of malfeasance that torpedoed the candidacies of two of the top three candidates. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros)

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalans head to the polls Sunday to choose their next president, as well as a vice president, congressional representatives and mayors. With 19 candidates in the race for president, a runoff vote is likely in August.

Unemployment, violence, corruption, rising costs of living and the shoddy state of the country’s highways are among top concerns for the country’s electorate. Surging migration has not emerged as a major campaign issue, even as an estimated 1 percent of Guatemala’s population of some 16 million people has left the country this year.

Here are the top-five candidates for president based on recent polls:

Polls favor former first lady Sandra Torres of the National Unity and Hope party to finish first, but it is unlikely she will get enough votes to avoid a runoff. Torres, 64, is a businesswoman who gained national prominence during the 2008-2012 government of her then-husband, Álvaro Colom, when she served as coordinator of the Council on Social Cohesion, an entity dedicated to helping the marginalized and the poor. The couple divorced in 2011. This is the third time Torres has tried to run for president. Prosecutors opened an investigation into alleged illicit campaign financing involving her party. The case has not moved forward because candidates are protected from prosecution.

This four-time presidential candidate and former prison director is best-known for having put down a prison uprising in which several hostages were killed.

A businessman and son of a former president, Arzú is polling close to Giammattei for second place. Arzú, who was once president of a soccer club, represents a coalition of conservative parties.

A lawyer, journalist and diplomat who was accused of running an international child adoption ring in the early 1980s that spirited orphans and other children who may have been abandoned out of Guatemala. Mulet, 68, later became the highest ranking Guatemalan in the United Nations.

The only indigenous candidate in the race and the top contender from a left-leaning party. Cabrera, 43, is a human and land rights defender from the indigenous Mam community.
A judge in Miami orders the arrest of Guatemalan presidential candidate Roberto Arzú. Arzú is the second presidential candidate who has had legal problems with the United States.