Guatemalans push for resignation of president

Thousands took to the streets in Guatemala City, demanding that President Otto Perez step down due to a corruption scandal that has shaken his government to its core.

Braving rain and a crush of people, demonstrators banged drums and blew whistles calling for Perez to stand down as his now ex-vice president Roxana Baldetti already has done.

Prosecutors last month uncovered a customs bribery ring following an investigation by the UN International Commission Against Impunity, accusing top tax officials and an aide to Baldetti, Juan Carlos Monzon, of involvement.

Baldetti herself resigned May 8.

But Perez has sought to ride it out, saying the investigation was supported by state prosecutors, and has called for peaceful demonstrations.

"I have never seen anything like this demonstration in my entire life," Norma Maldonado, a retiree in her sixties toting a sign that read "No more theft NOW," told AFP.

"We can't take it any more. We have to do something to stop all this corruption by our thieving political class," said student Isabel Morales, adding that the graft was all the more appalling given extreme poverty throughout much of the Central American nation's countryside.

There were demonstrations in 13 cities across the mountainous country of over 15 million.