https://web.archive.org/web/20240426083953/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/26/world/americas/guatemala-save-the-children-raid.html Guatemalan authorities searched the offices of Save the Children, the international charity said on Thursday, in an inquiry into claims of child abuse that was widely viewed as a political attack in a country with a history of targeting nonprofit groups and human rights organizations.....

Mr. Curruchiche, the prosecutor, whom the United States sanctioned by placing him on a list of corrupt officials for obstructing corruption inquiries and undermining democracy, said that the search followed a complaint filed with the Public Ministry....

Guatemala has had a record of suppressing anticorruption and human rights work....

The complaint against Save the Children was filed by a person who said that Guatemalan children were being abused at shelters in Texas where nongovernmental organizations were working, according to Juan Luis Pantaleón, a spokesman for the Public Ministry.

Mr. Curruchiche, the prosecutor, said that the authorities had asked the attorney general’s office in Texas for help with the investigation. In a letter to Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, verified by Guatemala’s Public Ministry, Ángel Pineda, the ministry’s secretary general, accused Save the Children of sending children to Texas illicitly. Mr. Pineda has also been sanctioned by the United States.

Manfredo Marroquín, the head of Citizen Action, a Guatemalan anti-corruption policy group, dismissed the notion that Guatemalan prosecutors were suddenly concerned about the safety of children in the country.

“Most likely, and almost assuredly, this is politically motivated,” he said in an interview.

Save The Children issued a couple of statements this month saying they work within two districts in Nicaragua and do facilitate the movement of children out of Nicaragua

https://guatemala.savethechildren.net/news-stories