President
On the day of his investiture Portillo said that Guatemala was "on the edge of collapse", and promised a thorough government investigation into corruption. On 9 August 2000 he declared that the governments of the previous two decades had been involved in human rights abuses. While he showed determination to see through his regenerative and progressive programme, his government soon became overwhelmed by the reality of the political and mafia corruption in the country. During 2001 his government faced a continuous wave of protests that sapped the credibility of his government. The FRG were accused of bringing corruption on an unprecedented scale to the country. His government has been tainted by accusations of theft, money laundering, money transferring to the army, creation of bank accounts in Panama, Mexico, and the United States by many members of his staff, totalling more than USD 1 billion.
In the first round of the November 2003 elections (see: Guatemala election, 2003), he backed former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt to succeed him. However, the FRG lost to Óscar Berger's GANA party, who was sworn in to replace Portillo on 14 January 2004.
Read more about this topic: Alfonso Portillo
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