Brother of Guatemala's ex-VP, 13 others arrested for fraud

The brother of Guatemala's former vice president Roxana Baldetti and at least 13 other people were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of fraud involving a public contract for an Israeli company to clean up a public lake.

Mario Baldetti, former government workers and several others were accused of wrongdoing by the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a United Nations-backed body whose corruption probe helped bring down the country's previous government last year.

Roxana Baldetti and former president Otto Perez are in jail pending a possible trial on charges they were involved in a ring in which senior officials accepted bribes in return for cutting import duties for several companies.

The latest CICIG accusations concern the suspects' alleged involvement in awarding an $18 million contract to an Israeli company to pour a cleaning chemical into Amatitlan Lake, south of the capital, to clean it up.

Environmentalists have questioned the efficacy of the chemical and claimed there were abnormalities in the tender process.

Prosecutors said they would also seek testimony from the former vice president, given that she was a driving force behind the cleanup project.