Guatemala Congress committee recommends ending Perez's immunity

By Sofia Menchu GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - A Guatemalan congressional committee on Friday recommended President Otto Perez be stripped of his immunity from prosecution to face investigation over corruption scandals that have rocked his administration. "We recommend that the investigating authority should be the one to determine whether there is any responsibility on the part of Perez," said opposition congressman Hugo Fernando Garcia, secretary of the committee looking into the matter. A full vote in Congress on whether to remove the president's immunity is due next week. To do so, the opposition needs a two-thirds majority. If reached, it would then be up to the public prosecutor's office to probe whether Perez was at fault. Perez's right-wing Patriot Party has only 33 of 158 seats in Congress, and needs 54 votes to protect his immunity. Ending that immunity would be unprecedented in the modern history of the Central American nation. Protesters have staged marches in Guatemala City calling for Perez to resign over a variety of corruption allegations that have devastated his cabinet in the last couple of months. Perez, 64, has not been directly accused of any wrongdoing. On May 8, Vice President Roxana Baldetti resigned after news reports linked her to a customs corruption racket. She denied any wrongdoing. On May 20, several senior officials, including the central bank governor and a former personal secretary to Perez, were arrested as part of a bribery probe. One day later, Perez fired several top ministers who had also been the subject of media allegations of graft. In September, Guatemala holds the first round of its next presidential elections. The law bars Perez from running again. (Additional reporting by Enrique Pretel; Editing by Dave Graham)