Juan Alberto Fuentes detained over charges relating to his time as Guatemala’s finance minister, in fresh scandal for organisation embroiled in sexual exploitation allegations

The chairman of the board of Oxfam International, Juan Alberto Fuentes, has been arrested in Guatemala on allegations of corruption during his time as a government minister.

The arrest of the chair of the organisation – currently embroiled in an escalating sexual exploitation scandal – was announced by the office of Guatemala’s attorney general.

Although the arrest is unrelated to Fuentes’ time as Oxfam’s chair, it is bound to refocus attention on the troubled charity’s senior management, not least over issues of due diligence in senior appointments.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Centre, Juan Alberto Fuentes pictured in 2009, with (left) Portugal’s then state and finance minister, Fernando Teixeira Santos, and (right) Panama’s ambassador to Portugal, Minerva Lara Batista. Photograph: Francisco Leong/AFP/Getty Images

Fuentes, who was announced as Oxfam International’s chair in 2015, is a former finance minister of Guatemala.

According to the Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre, Fuentes was among 10 people, including a former president, who were arrested on Tuesday in a case relating to corruption allegations around Guatemala city’s Transurbano mass transport system.

Although the reported arrest is unrelated to Fuentes’ time as Oxfam’s chair it is bound to refocus attention on the troubled charity’s senior management, not least over issues of due diligence in senior appointments.



Shortly after Fuentes’ arrest, prosecutors announced they had also detained former president Alvaro Colom in their investigation into the questionable purchases of public buses used in Guatemala City.

Fuentes has had a high-profile career in both politics and economics. He was the founder and director for the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies, before becoming minister of finance between 2008 and 2010.

His arrest, although tied to Guatemala’s sometimes febrile politics that has seen a number of former ministers arrested in the past, is the latest scandal to hit Oxfam, which is still reeling under serious accusations over the way that it allegedly mishandled the dismissal of a senior staff member accused of using prostitutes during the crisis after the Haitian earthquake.

That separate controversy saw Haiti’s president condemn the charity on Tuesday for its “serious violation of human dignity”. Oxfam has issued an “unreserved apology” to the government, donors, supporters and the people of Haiti over its handling of incidents in the earthquake-hit country in 2011.

An Oxfam spokesperson said: “As far as we are aware, no formal charges have been made against Dr Fuentes Knight. He has been entirely open with the Oxfam board and executive about the investigation, which began after he was appointed as Oxfam chair.



“Dr Fuentes Knight maintains his innocence and assures us that he has cooperated fully with the investigation. The investigation relates to a budgetary transaction made by the Guatemalan government while he was finance minister in a previous administration.”