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Opposition parties in Guatemala are calling for President Jimmy Morales to reveal his role in the awarding of two government contracts to an Indiana lobbying firm closely linked to U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence.
The firm, Barnes & Thornburg, was hired to improve relations between the governments of Guatemala and the United States.
But it remains unclear who funded the contracts worth almost US$1 million, which were signed by politicians who did not have the authority to intervene in foreign affairs.
Several employees of Barnes & Thornburg have worked for Pence, including managing partner Robert Grand.
He served as a senior member of the finance group for the Trump-Pence presidential campaign and now sits on the Republican National Committee’s finance leadership team.
“There should be an investigation by both authorities into the origins of the funds, who is really behind the contract and what is the lobbying was really for,” Alejandro Barillas, a criminal lawyer at the international accountability group Impunity Watch told the Guardian newspaper.
Four congressmen representing different political parties signed one contract with Barnes & Thornburg in May.
The company has been hired to handle communications and develop communication strategies between members of the Guatemalan government and senior members of the U.S. executive and legislative branches.
In return, the Indianapolis-based agency will receive $80,000 per month for the work until June 30, 2018.
Jaime Regalado, one of the lawmakers involved, told The Associated Press that Barnes & Thornburg did not receive any funds from the Guatemalan government, and the money came from donations from business people whom he declined to name.
On Thursday, in an audio recording, the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala criticised the four lawmakers who signed the contracts,.
“There are four idiots in congress. I have worked closely with many of the lawmakers, but there are some for whom I have no respect neither as lawmakers nor as authorities,” Robinson said during a meeting Wednesday with a local journalist, according to the audio published online by Prensa Libre.
In a later radio interview, Robinson explained that he considered it unnecessary to hire a lobbying firm to help bilateral relations. “If there are problems with relations between the two countries, there are two embassies to address them,” he said.
The U.S. Embassy also said in a statement that both nations “have a strong bilateral relationship and work together to advance our shared goals of promoting security and prosperity.”
Apart from this contract, Barnes & Thornburg had signed an agreement in April to provide lobbying and government relations counsel to President Morales’ executive office.
The contract was cancelled 11 days later.
Morales has denied knowledge of the contract, but his close friend and party fundraiser Claus Marvin Merida was a signatory.
“If the president’s good friend Claus Merida was acting independently, [Morales] is obliged by law to report this” said Congressman Amilcar Pop from the progressive indigenous party Winaq.
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