Thread by @JonathanBlitzer

Tomorrow in Guatemala, a judge named Dina Ochoa faces a vote to be re-elected to the country’s Constitutional Court. Her critics accuse her of being corrupt. This thread includes info relevant to that conversation. It’s also about the US & the rule of law in Central America 1/

On September 9, 2019, then Interior Minister Enrique Degenhart & Dina Ochoa, at the time a magistrate on the Constitutional Court, had a meeting in Washington w Mauricio Claver-Carone, then an official at the WH (& now the controversial head of Inter-American Development Bank) 2/

Stephen Miller was angry & on edge. US was trying to get Honduras & El Salvador to follow Guate in signing a safe third country deal. Problem was: Guate, the 1st gov’t to sign, hadn’t yet implemented the deal. The Constitutional Court ruled that Congress first had to approve 3/

Unsurprisingly, the deal was UNPOPULAR in Guatemala. Meanwhile, the Trump WH was getting flack behind the scenes. It was pressuring these other governments to sign the deals, but the first major signatory was stuck. 4/

Degenhart brought Dina Ochoa to reassure the Americans; explain the problem; and “unstick” the Constitutional Court, according to former Administration sources. 5/

She explained to the WH officials where the votes were on the Guatemalan high court, and vowed to bring around two other judges to her position to get a majority in favor of the safe third country deal. 6/

Dina Ochoa, a sitting judge on the Constitutional Court, was meeting with Trump officials at the White House to give an inside account of the deliberations of Guatemala’s highest judicial body...and to vow to bring the court around to do the US’s bidding. 7/

Later that day, the Constitutional Court changed its position on the safe third country deal. 8/

This allowed the outgoing Guatemalan Executive to circumvent the country’s Congress. So, tomorrow, Guatemala’s Congress will have a chance to vote to keep this judge on the high court. Will be interesting to see what happens...end/