Amid a corruption scandal that has been punctuated by daily protests in the country, Guatemala's President Otto Pérez Molina has resigned.
In a letter presented to Congress at 11:58 p.m. on Wednesday, Otto Pérez said he was resigning "in the interest of the country."
Just hours earlier, the country's Congress had voted to strip Pérez Molina of his immunity. The country's public prosecutor said on Twitter that the former president has been charged and an arrest warrant has been issued.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
"The president faces charges of fraud, illicit association and corruption related to a customs fraud ring that gave discounts on import tariffs to companies in exchange for kickbacks, the country's Attorney General Thelma Aldana told Guatemalan television station Canal Antigua on Wednesday."'We are convinced that he is involved (in the scheme),' she told the station."
Otto Pérez's former vice president Roxana Baldetti is currently in jail facing charges of the same kind. Prosecutors allege she took a 50 percent cut of those bribes paid by businesses to skirt customs duties.
Pérez Molina, 64, has always maintained his innocence.
The Los Angeles Times reports that this case is "widely seen as an unprecedented blow against entrenched corruption and impunity in this Central American nation."
The Times goes on:
"Each step in the process is a first, as no sitting president in Guatemala has been prosecuted for a crime, though some have faced corruption charges after leaving office."
La Prensa Libre reports that the silence of a quiet, rainy night was broken as citizens of the city began to learn of the former president's decision.
A group of young people carrying flags, reports the paper, celebrated in front of the Judicial Palace. They celebrated this moment, the paper reports, as "a triumph of the people."
Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre, who took over as vice president when Baldetti was arrested, has been sworn in as president, the paper reports.
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