Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has resigned in the face of a corruption scandal that has brought his government to the brink, a spokesman said early Thursday.
Spokesman Jorge Ortega said Perez Molina submitted his resignation at midnight Wednesday local time after a judge issued an order to detain him in the customs fraud case, which already has led to the jailing of his vice-president, and the resignation of several cabinet ministers who withdrew their support for the president.
His resignation, the first by a Guatemalan president, is not effective until members of Congress accept it and name a new president. They were convening early Thursday morning to do so.
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