Brother of Guatemala's ex-VP, 12 others arrested for fraud

The brother of Guatemala's former vice president Roxana Baldetti and 12 others were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of fraud involving contracting an Israeli company to clean up a touristy lake, police said.

Mario Baldetti and the others, several of whom were former government workers, were accused of wrongdoing by the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a United Nations-backed body whose investigations into corruption helped bring down the country's previous government last year.

Roxana Baldetti and former president Otto Perez are in jail pending a possible trial on charges they were involved in a ring in which senior officials accepted bribes in return for cutting import duties for several companies.

The CICIG arrested Mario Baldetti and the 12 others for involvement in awarding an $18 million contract to an Israeli company to pour a cleaning chemical into Amatitlan Lake, south of the capital, to clean it up.

Environmentalists have questioned the efficacy of the chemical and claimed there were abnormalities in the tender process.

Prosecutors said they would also seek testimony from the former vice president, given that she was a driving force behind the clean-up project.

Photo: File picture of protestors rallying outside the presidential palace in Guatemala City (Yahoo)