Guatemalan ruling party candidate extradited by U.S. for cocaine trafficking charges

Guatemalan authorities have arrested a Vamos Party political candidate as part of an extradition request from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida for drug-related crimes.

Byron Orellana Véliz was arrested on Sunday in the municipality of Guastatoya, in the department of El Progreso, located about 70 kilometers east of Guatemala City, according to the Public Ministry (MP).

Orellana Véliz registered to run in the upcoming June 25 elections as a councilor for the municipality of Guastatoya where his cousin, Jorge Orellana, serves as the current mayor.

The Vamos party is the ruling party of President Alejandro Giammattei in 2019.

The U.S. Attorney's Office is extraditing Véliz to appear in federal court in Miami for allegedly engaging in a conspiracy to distribute and traffic cocaine in the United States.

The politician has allegedly been acting as an intermediary between a Colombian organization of drug traffickers and buyers in Mexico and the United States since 2005, according to U.S. authorities.

Véliz has become the fifth person this year who was detained in Guatemala for extradition to the United States.

Last January, the former Minister of the Interior and analyst Carlos Menocal predicted that the electoral process in Guatemala would be stained by the active participation of candidates linked to drug trafficking structures, in an interview with EFE.

Guatemalan elections will be held on June 25.

The country will elect a new president, 340 municipal corporations, 160 deputies and 20 representatives to the Central American Parliament.