MEXICO CITY — Guatemalans responded with anger Thursday to the approval of legislation to roll back the country’s anticorruption campaign, deepening a political crisis that has kept the country on edge for weeks.

On Thursday night, the country’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, provisionally suspended the legislation. But the congressional maneuver had already generated broad opposition — from conservative business groups to students.

The upheaval is only the latest chapter in the escalating tension between the government and a United Nations anticorruption panel that many Guatemalans view as their best hope to root out the pervasive graft that chokes public institutions.

Even before the court ruling, there were signs Thursday that the furious reaction had pushed some legislators to regret passing the measures swiftly and without debate on Wednesday. Those measures would have gutted campaign finance rules and allowed many criminals serving sentences of less than 10 years to walk free in exchange for a small fine.