PRESIDENT OTTO PÉREZ MOLINA WILL REQUEST AN EXTENSION OF CICIG MANDATE
The President also added that those individuals saying the extension (of CICIG's mandate) should be brought before Congress are critics of the Commission.

Guatemala, February 7, 2012. In his first official visit to CICIG, the President of Guatemala, Otto Pérez Molina, announced his intention to request a two-year extension of CICIG's mandate, which, if approved, would see it run until the end of his presidential term. "This will permit two important things: firstly, it will allow the Commissioner and his team to define the necessary strategies and procedures [...] so as to help us strengthen our institutions and, therefore, when they leave, we will have the institutional stability to continue to progress. Secondly, it will allow us to make an announcement, one which, at a later date, I shall make before the United Nations Secretary General so that he follows all necessary protocol and informs the countries, [...] especially the donors who have supported this international effort to help us combat impunity and improve justice in Guatemala."

The President indicated that he will invite the President of Congress and the CICIG Commissioner to meet at the Presidential Palace and discuss a joint vision of the actions to be taken by the different branches of government, in an environment of respect for independence.

As to a complaint against former President Álvaro Colom, which is seen as a campaign against CICIG, Pérez Molina stated that those who believe the extension request should be brought before Congress are "the critics (of CICIG), who are unaware of what gave rise to CICIG and the legal grounds on which it was established here in Guatemala. The initial agreement, which was ratified by the Congress of the Republic, stipulates the means through which an extension of the Commission's mandate in our country should be requested. Therefore, it is not necessary—in so much as it is already provided for—to request an extension before the Congress of the Republic, but rather through an exchange of letters between the President of the Republic and the United Nations Secretary General. That is embodied [in the agreement] and it shall be the procedure we follow. Any individual who attempts to oppose such efforts will be acting in complete breach of the law."

See press conference