Guatemala ex-leader pleads not guilty to theft

Guatemalan ex-president Alfonso Portillo pleaded not guilty in a US court Tuesday to charges that he swindled some tens of millions of dollars of his government's funds. Portillo, jailed in New York after being arrested last week in his home country, is the first former Latin American leader to be extradited to the United States. The 61-year-old entered his plea before Judge Robert Patterson in Manhattan federal court. Accompanied by five lawyers and wearing a grey jacket and white shirt with a purple tie, he seemed calm. Portillo, who ruled Guatemala from 2000 to 2004, was indicted by a US grand jury on charges of embezzling public funds and laundering the money through US and European banks, including $1.5 million intended for Guatemalan school children. Portillo, who suffers heart and lung ailments, faces a prison sentence of up to 20 years if convicted. He was picked up unannounced on Friday from a military hospital in Guatemala City, where he had been convalescing in recent weeks, and rushed to the main Air Force base south of the capital under heavy protection, from where he was flown to New York. After arriving in the United States on Friday, he was taken first to a hospital for a medical check, but was quickly discharged and transferred to a jail in southern Manhattan, the Guatemalan consulate said. Washington welcomed the extradition as "an important affirmation of the rule of law and due process in Guatemala." The ex-president, who has been fighting extradition since it was approved by then president Alvaro Colom in 2011, has called the case against him "political persecution." "They have acted illegally against me from the beginning. They have violated all my rights," he declared as he boarded the plane headed for the United States, adding that the government was "responsible for anything that may happen to my health." Although he is the first to be extradited, Portillo is not the first Latin American ex-leader to wind up in the US facing criminal charges. Panama's former dictator Manuel Noriega was ousted by US troops in 1989, convicted on drug trafficking charges and jailed in Florida for 20 years.