GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei reappointed his country’s attorney general on Monday. It comes only months after the U.S. government accused him of dismantling efforts to combat corruption.

Maria Consuelo Porras made headlines last year for her efforts to stop corruption investigations by making arrests.

Giammattei explained that “This was no easy decision.”

Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary-of-State, tweeted late Monday night that “Attorney General Porra’s corrupt acts undermine democracy” and urged Guatemalans encourage accountability and respect for the law.

Recent days saw the president blast as interventionist attempts to deny Porras another term and defend her record of impartiality as non-ideological.

Giammattei claimed last week that he was threatened, called and visited by an ambassador from a foreign power asking him to not re-appoint Porras.

Porras, who was first elected attorney general in 2018, will continue in her position for four years after Giammattei gives her a fresh vote of confidence.

The 68-year old lawyer fired the head of Guatemala’s Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity’s Office (FECI), last year. This led to claims that Porras had obstructed investigations into Giammattei.

During Porras’s initial term her office also incarcerated several FECI employees as well as a lawyer representing the United Nations-backed CICIG anti-corruption committee. The latter was expulsed from Guatemala in 2018, after it conducted probes that led to former presidents being convicted.

Other FECI employees resigned claiming their expulsion in political persecution. Porras denies this.

Along with the fact that there is gang violence and joblessness in Guatemala, corruption in Guatemala is frequently cited as one of the major factors driving increased immigration to America.

Some leaders of civil society also criticised the pick.

Juan Pappier, Human Rights Watch posted on Twitter that Porras was dedicated to stopping corruption investigations as well as pushing spurious cases against journalists and prosecutors.

“Guatemalan Democracy is in serious danger.”