Julio Roberto Suárez Guerra is a Guatemalan banker who served as the President of the country's central bank, the

Bank of Guatemala The Bank of Guatemala ( es, Banco de Guatemala) is the central bank of Guatemala. It was established in 1945. It is one of the most recognized Brutalist themed architectural structures. Designed by architects José Montes Córdova and Raúl Min ...

from 1 October 2014 to 30 September 2018. He spent the majority of his term detained, relating to a large-scale fraud case, of which he was cleared on appeal in July 2019.

Career

Suárez obtained a degree from the

Universidad de San Carlos de 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 ...

. From 2002 to 2005 he worked for the

Central American Bank for Economic Integration The Central American Bank for Economic Integration - CABEI ( BCIE in Spanish) was founded in 1960. It is an international multilateral development financial institution. Its resources are invested in projects that foster development to reduce pov ...

. Suárez also worked as the Guatemalan representative to the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster gl ...

. Suárez served as Vice President of the Bank of Guatemala from 2006 until his appointment as President per 1 October 2014. He succeeded

Edgar Barquín Edgar is a commonly used English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Eadgar'' (composed of '' ead'' "rich, prosperous" and ''gar'' "spear"). Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the later medieval period; it was, however, rev ...

. On 20 May 2015 Suárez was arrested together with fifteen others on accusations of fraud, illegal charging of commissions, illicit association and influence peddling. Suárez himself was accused of fraud. The accusations were linked to the awarding of a contract to the Empresa Farmaceútica Pisa de Guatemala with services to the Guatemalan Social Security Institute, in which the accused were suspected of receiving kickbacks. Suárez spent 3,5 years in detention before his trial commenced. On 26 September 2018 he, and eleven others, were convicted of fraud and sentenced to six years and 3 months imprisonment. On 5 July 2019 an appeal led to the clearing of the charges against Suárez. Suárez's term in office as President of the Bank of Guatemala ended on 30 September 2018, he was succeeded by

Sergio Francisco Recinos Rivera Sergio may refer to: * Sergio (given name), for people with the given name Sergio * Sergio (carbonado), the largest rough diamond ever found * ''Sergio'' (album), a 1994 album by Sergio Blass * ''Sergio'' (2009 film), a documentary film * ''Ser ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suarez, Julio Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Guatemalan bankers Presidents of the Bank of Guatemala Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala alumni