GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemalan prosecutors raided the offices of the charity Save the Children on Thursday, mentioning a grievance alleging the violation of migrant youngsters’s rights.
Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche stated in a video to media that the grievance filed through an unidentified foreigner had raised critical issues as it concerned allegations of abuse of youngsters.
The raid got here every week after the secretary normal of Guatemala’s Public Ministry, Ángel Pineda, wrote a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton requesting toughen in addressing allegations that Save the Children and different help teams “could be participating in child trafficking operations.”
Curruchiche stated the raid was once supposed to seek for any paperwork that may toughen the accusations. The prosecutor’s administrative center didn’t say whether or not Paxton spoke back to the request.
Curruchiche and Pineda had been accused of seeking to undermine the nation’s democracy through taking part in a failed effort to stop anti-corruption President Bernardo Arévalo from taking energy in addition to hindering the anti-corruption combat in the Central American country. Those efforts have resulted in greater than 40 international locations sanctioning them, together with the United States and the European Union.
The raid comes amid historical ranges of migration to the United States, during which Guatemala has been each a rustic that folks migrate from and a transit path that they use on their approach north.
Save the Children, which is devoted to taking care of youngsters in disaster zones, has been running in Guatemala since 1976. It didn’t touch upon Thursday’s raid, nevertheless it issued a commentary final week indicating it was once conscious of the allegations announcing it has no proof the allegations are true.
“We take the allegations of children’s safety and misconduct very seriously and have independent investigative mechanisms in place to investigate thoroughly,” the charity’s commentary stated. “We haven’t any proof to validate such allegations and we proceed to paintings arduous to offer humanitarian help to migrant youngsters and their households underneath strict protection and coverage requirements.”
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