Acisclo Valladares Urruela

Acisclo Valladares Urruela is a Guatemalan attorney and notary who served as Economics Minister during the administration of President Jimmy Morales.^[1] Previously he held the post of Special Mission Appointed Ambassador to attend to the international agenda related to the Alliance for the Prosperity of the North Triangle Plan and General Coordinator of the executive committee of the National Competitiveness Program, PRONACOM.^[2]

In August 2020 Valladares Urruela was charged by the Miami, Florida US Federal Court of conspiring to commit money laundering.^[3] Valladares Urruela appeared before that court in October and hearing has been set for January 2021. The Guatemalan office of the Attorney General (Ministerio Público) and the UN-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) had filed in May 2019 impeachment proceedings against him for attempts between 2012 and 2015 to influence votes in the Guatemalan legislature in favor of Tigo, the telephone company he headed.^[4] In August 2019, a Congress Investigative Commission in Guatemala recommended not to proceed with the impeachment and preserved his immunity.^[5] However, on 7 July 2022 Valladares Urruela pled guilty in Miami federal court to transferring $350,000 in bribery payments and receiving $140,000 as part of the money laundering scheme, and agreed to cooperate with the U.S.'s Attorney's Office.^[6]