In his 45 years, José Armando Ubico Aguilar, has been captured in the United States for smuggling heroin into that country, he was a deputy of the Congress of the Republic for eight consecutive years, he was a member of the “Spartacus” criminal structure, he was included in the Engel List of the Department of State and last Wednesday, May 1, he pleaded guilty in the United States to drug trafficking.
Ubico was born in Guatemala City on November 26, 1978. At 23 years old, he was sentenced to more than three years in prison and three years of probation because he tried to bring drugs through the Newark Airport, New Jersey, before a judge. , he pleaded guilty.
He regained his freedom in 2005 and was deported to Guatemala. He reappeared on the political map in the 2011 electoral process. A year later he was hired as a legislative advisor to Congress, a position he held until 2012.
In 2015, he ran as a candidate for deputy for the Sacatepéquez district with the Todos party. He occupied the first box and the votes were enough to have a space in the Legislature. In 2016, the party nominated him to serve as president of the Culture Commission.
Political career
But it was in 2017 that he joined the National Defense Commission. He held the presidency of said room until 2022, which is why he maintained total closeness with the Ministry of National Defense, since his commission learned about and ruled on several projects related to the Army, and he also had the opportunity as president to request confidential information about National security.
In that same period he became a key player for the former president of the republic, Jimmy Morales. His closeness meant that Ubico was a marketing consultant between 2007 and 2011 and met Morales in the artistic field, who was a comedian before becoming president.
It was during the Morales administration in which he achieved key spaces in the department that elected him and in other State institutions.
In 2019, he won his re-election again with the Todos party. The National Defense room did not let her go and continued directing it, this gave her the opportunity to take several courses in which the Ministry of National Defense awarded her several diplomas, among them: Security, Defense and Risk Management, Interinstitutional Intelligence and High Strategic Studies, he also participated in seminars on Threat, Transregional and Transnational Networks.
Added to his accumulation of diplomas is a Political Consultant and Political Marketing and Electoral Campaigns with a Major in Intelligence and Counterintelligence, as well as a Master’s Degree in Public Administration at the Andragogy University.
In the administration of former president Alejandro Giammattei, he maintained political-administrative spaces in the department and outside of it. His brother, Diego Alejandro Ubico Aguilar, served as first secretary of the embassy and consul in Japan. Before occupying this position in the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry, he was an advisor and monitor at the Secretariat of Administrative and Security Affairs (SAAS).
Another of his brothers, Álvaro David Ubico Aguilar, worked in the Fund for the Development of Telephony (Fondetel) and in the Superintendence of Telecommunications (SIT), both attached to the Ministry of Communications.
The president of the Defense Commission
As president of the Commission, which he held for six consecutive years and as its vice-president in 2023, the Ministry of Defense awarded him the “White Monja Medal” in 2022 for his support in various circumstances to the military forces. Months before, the same portfolio always gave him a trophy for his support.
During his time in the work room, he learned about and ruled on initiatives related to the internal legislation of the Guatemalan Army: the Constitutive Law of the Army, the Organic Law of the Institute of Military Prevision, Support for the Civil Security Forces, declaring gangs and maras as terrorists, promoted the payment of Q36 thousand to former Army soldiers, as well as participated in the discussion of reforms to the Justice Sector.
In 2019, the United States Department of State included him on a list of corrupt actors. He accused him of participating in money laundering resulting from drug trafficking.
On March 3, 2021, an effective collaborator declared before the Public Ministry (MP) that the then congressman supported a group of drug traffickers made up of police and military personnel.
In the statements, which are recorded in audio and in testimonial records, the witness mentions a person whom he called “Jorge Armando Ubico Mendizábal.”
The testimony was presented as advance evidence in March 2021, before the Ninth Criminal Court.
The testimony refers to the way in which, since 2015, the criminal structure “Espartaco” operated in four departments of Guatemala and whose leader was the now deceased Antonio de Jesús Jerez, alias “Tono Jerez”, and his cohabitant Gloria Raquel González García. , who is currently in prison.
The witness revealed as part of his statement three alleged collaborators of the criminal organization, where he mentions a deputy for Sacatepéquez.
Late application
On December 28, 2022, the Public Ministry (MP) requested before the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) the withdrawal of Ubico Aguilar’s immunity.
Prensa Libre confirmed at the time that Ubico Aguilar had left the country on December 18, 2022, by land to El Salvador. Ten days before the criminal action was filed against him.
In the case of Ubico Aguilar, an indictment was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
The new accusation
On May 1, the former Guatemalan representative pleaded guilty to “violation of international drug trafficking conspiracy” before federal judge Kimberly Priest, of the Eastern District of Texas, according to information published by the United States Department of Justice. United on their web portal.
Ubico, through an agreement with the US authorities, arrived in the North American country at the beginning of this week – between May 29 and 30 – and was arrested.
According to the federal judge, in his capacity as deputy, Ubico “was entrusted with promoting the fight against drug traffickers who push illegal narcotics to the north of the United States.”
He added that “as president of the National Defense Commission of the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala, he was responsible, in part, for the national security of his own country. Instead, he betrayed him when he decided to associate with known drug traffickers and other corrupt officials.”
The prosecutor pointed out that there were foreign partners who supported compliance with the law so that the former deputy could not “hide behind his position of power.”
On March 3, 2021, Ubico Aguilar was indicted on federal drug trafficking violations by a federal jury in the Eastern District of Texas. At that time he pleaded guilty and admitted his role in the conspiracy, transmitting drug-related information and US currency to another Guatemalan official on behalf of an international drug trafficker.
This allowed at least 450 kilos of cocaine to pass through Guatemala to be distributed in the United States.
Ubico Aguilar could be sentenced to 10 years to life in federal prison. The hearing will be scheduled after the United States Probation Office completes its investigation of the case, according to the official report.
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