Guatemalan police arrested Sandra Torres, former presidential candidate and first lady, on Monday. The 63-year-old is charged with violating campaign finance rules. The judicial move was made just before the U.N. anti-corruption commission completed its job in the country. 

"She is charged with the crimes of failing to register election financing, and unlawful association," the attorney general's office said in a statement, adding that the warrant was issued last Friday. 

Torres was taken by several police officers from her home on the outskirts of Guatemala City to the courthouse to appear before judge Claudette Dominguez. The former candidate is now in custody awaiting trial. The judge considered her a flight risk.

According to the Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre, Torres was sent to the Mariscal Zavala prison, where other high-ranking officials, like ex-president Otto Perez Molina, are serving sentences. 

On Torres' side was Orlando Blanco. "We reject this disproportionate and unnecessary measure against Sandra Torres," said the lawmaker on Twitter. Her party, National Unity of Hope (UNE) referred to the arrest as politically motivated. 

The charges originated from a case investigated by the UN backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) involving the UNE party. According to the attorney general's office, UNE received some 3.5 million dollars in undeclared financing during the 2015 presidential election. So, this was one of the final strikes of CICIG against corruption in the country before the end of its mandate.

No ordinary politician 

Judicial investigations are not foreign to Torres. The former first lady was being investigated for alleged campaign finance violations during her 2015 campaign. In February 2019, the attorney general's office and CICIG had already tried to get Torres' immunity from prosecution lifted over this case, reported CNN Espanol. They alleged that when she was UNE secretary-general, from January to June 2015, she received around 2.5 million U.S. dollars for her presidential campaign, but didn't notify the supreme electoral court.

Last month, Torres lost the presidential race to Alejandro Giammattei in her third attempt at the official post. 

According to the Americas Quarterly, as the wife of former president Alvaro Colom, she is a well-known figure at a national level. Because the constitution bars the spouses of sitting presidents from running to succeed their partner, the couple divorced in 2011 so she could run. That candidacy was rejected by a top court, so she was only able to run in 2015 and finished second behind Jimmy Morales. 

A strong supporter of state social plans, Torres won the approval of rural voters and also had the support of the business class and some local government mayors. 

The end of an era with CICIG

CICIG's mandate in Guatemala ended September 3, after 12 years. On August 31, 2018, President Jimmy Morales announced he wasn't renewing the commission mandate and accused the commission of "sowing judicial terror in Guatemala," by "violating our laws, inducing people and institutions to participate in acts of corruption and impunity," and "selective criminal prosecution with an ideological bias."

CICIG is an international body created when the United Nations and Guatemala signed a treaty-level agreement establishing CICIG as an independent body supporting the Public Prosecutor's Office, the National Civilian Police, and other state institutions in the investigation and prosecution of illegal groups and organized crime.

In an opinion piece published in the Washington Post, Iván Velásquez, CICIG commissioner, wrote that "in the past decade, Guatemala has become a place where once-untouchable, powerful elites have learned to fear criminal prosecution."

"That's the legacy of an independent and resilient commission created to dismantle an entrenched system of corruption that ruled from the highest levels of industry and government," said Velásquez adding that CICIG action made it one of the most popular institutions in the country.

Velásquez said it was an honor to have served as the head of the commission and that Jimmy Morales, Guatemala's outgoing president, fear and decision to not extend CICIG mandate "was recognition of its efficacy."

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the CICIG "made a decisive contribution to strengthen the rule of law as well as investigation and prosecution capacities in Guatemala over its last 12 years of existence and operation."

Guterres "trusts that efforts to fight impunity will continue and expresses the UN's readiness to continue cooperating with Guatemala in strengthening the rule of law," Dujarric told reporters in a press briefing.

"The Secretary-General expects that the rights of those involved in the fight against impunity in Guatemala will be protected," the spokesman added.

(With input from Reuters, Xinhua)