Ingrid Roxana Baldetti Elías (born May 13, 1962) was the first female

Vice President of Guatemala Vice president of Guatemala is a political position in Guatemala which is since 1966 elected concurrently with the position of President of Guatemala. The current Vice President is Guillermo Castillo Reyes. The Vice President needs to be a Gu ...

from 2012 until her resignation amid a corruption scandal in 2015. She was convicted of fraud in 2018.

Early life

Baldetti was born in

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...

. She comes from a conservative,

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

family. Her parents were Alejandro Baldetti and Gladys Elías de Baldetti. She attended primary school in the Colegio Monte Carmelo, graduating as a primary education teacher in El Sagrado Corazón de Jesús at the Historic Center of Guatemala. She obtained a bachelor's degree in Journalism at the

University of San Carlos of Guatemala The Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC, ''University of San Carlos of Guatemala'') is the largest and oldest university of Guatemala; it is also the fourth founded in the Americas. Established in the Kingdom of Guatemala during the Spani ...

Career

Previously an elementary school substitute teacher, Baldetti started in journalism on the television news program ''Aquí el Mundo''. She was co-founder of the news program ''TV Noticias''. She worked at

Univisión Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...

as a correspondent from Guatemala for the show ''

Primer Impacto ''Primer Impacto'' (''First Impact'') is a Spanish-language television news program broadcast by Univision weekdays at 5pm ET//4pm CT. A later program at 11pm ET/PT (''Primer Impacto Extra'') airs on Univision affiliates without a local news dep ...

''. She worked in favor of women for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

at a national level, including conferences within the Republic in partnership with Kellogg's Central America. She was founder of a beauty products company, also she founded a spa and hair salon chain.

Political career

In the 1990s, she was designated as the Subsecretary of Public Relations for the Presidency of the Republic. In 2001, she helped found the Patriot Party alongside

Otto Pérez Molina Otto Fernando Pérez Molina (born 1 December 1950) is a Guatemalan politician and retired general, who was President of Guatemala from 2012 to 2015. Standing as the Patriotic Party (''Partido Patriota'') candidate, he lost the 2007 president ...

. She was elected to

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

in 2004, she held the position of national-list congressional deputy for the Patriot Party. However, she presented her resignation to the Congress president before August 15, 2011, as she was going to participate as the vice presidential candidate for the same party, as Pérez Molina's running-mate. and she announced the elections day that she will retake her position as deputy. She has been the General Secretary of the

Patriotic Party , colorcode = #E4433E , leader1_title = Leaders , leader1_name = Ignacy Potocki Adam Kazimierz CzartoryskiStanisław Małachowski , foundation = , dissolution = , headquarters = Kraków , ideology = Pro-Reform Constituti ...

since 2009.

Personal life

In 1987 she married Mariano Paz, and they have two children, Luis Pedro and Mario.

Unexplained wealth

In 2013, Guatemalan newspaper '' El Periódico'' published details of Baldetti's purchases of multimillion-dollar homes and other luxury goods with unexplained wealth. Baldetti owns five properties and a helicopter worth over US$13 million, which could not be accounted for by her or her husband's income. In response to the investigation into unexplained wealth, a Guatemalan judge initiated legal proceedings against the editor of ''El Periódico'',

José Rubén Zamora José Rubén Zamora Marroquín (born August 19, 1956) is an industrial engineer, entrepreneur, and the founder of three Guatemalan newspapers: ''Siglo Veintiuno'' ("21st Century") in 1990, and '' El Periódico'' ("The Newspaper") in 1996, and '' ...

. The

Inter American Press Association The Inter American Press Association (IAPA; Spanish: ''Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa'', SIP) is a press advocacy group representing major media organizations in North America, South America and the Caribbean. It is made up of more than 1,300 ...

subsequently denounced the judicial action as a form of

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

Resignation, arrest, trials and sentence

Baldetti resigned from her post as Vice President on May 8, 2015, after a UN anti-corruption investigation arrested 24 individuals, including her personal secretary Juan Carlos Monzón Rojas, for involvement in an import bribery scheme known as ''La Línea'' (the Line) in which officials received bribes to reduce duties paid by importers. Baldetti was detained on fraud charges on August 21, 2015, while at the hospital. Reportedly, wiretaps of those implicated in the scandals appears to refer to her involvement with references to "the R", "the No.2" and "the lady." Her arrest was followed by allegations by prosecutor Thelma Aldana against President Molina, and protests calling for his resignation. On October 27, 2017, Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez of Guatemala City ordered Baldetti, Pérez, and another 26 people, including former senior officials from Guatemala's customs duty system, to face trial on charges related to bribes channeled to officials helping businesses evade customs duties. On October 9, 2018, Baldetti was sentenced to years in prison for fraud and other charges related to the issuance of government contracts to clean Lake Amatitlan. Additionally, she faces drug trafficking charges in the United States. On January 18, 2022, another "La Linea" related trial began for Baldetti, where she would this time serve as Pérez's co-defendant. She was sentenced on 7 December 2022 to 16 years in prisons for the graft case, but she can appeal.

References

External links

* ''in Spanish''.
Roxana Baldetti
at the

website ''in Spanish''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Baldetti, Roxana 1962 births Living people Vice presidents of Guatemala Patriotic Party (Guatemala) politicians Members of the Congress of Guatemala Guatemalan journalists Guatemalan women journalists People from Guatemala City Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala alumni Women government ministers of Guatemala Guatemalan people of Italian descent 21st-century Guatemalan women politicians 21st-century Guatemalan politicians Guatemalan politicians convicted of crimes Women vice presidents Heads of government who were later imprisoned