THE alleged mastermind of Guatemala’s customs bribery scandal claimed yesterday that the country’s former president and vice-president were behind the scheme.

Juan Carlos Monzon Rojas, former personal secretary to disgraced vice-president Roxana Baldetti, turned himself in on Sunday after months on the run.

At his initial hearing on Monday, Mr Monzon alleged that he had only been following orders from Ms Baldetti and then president Otto Perez Molina.

He said any member of the governing Patriot Party’s cabinet “could affirm that you didn’t do anything without the knowledge and approval of either of the two, Otto Perez or Roxana Baldetti.”

Mr Monzon is accused of running the corruption ring known as La Linea, through which businesses bribed government officials to let them off millions of pounds worth of import duties.

He claimed on Monday that he had tried to give himself up earlier, but an attempt on his wife’s life and fears for his own safety had dissuaded him.

The country’s former rulers “have the ability to order me silenced,” Mr Monzon said. “I am the missing link the detectives needed.”

Following the hearing, he was taken under close guard, wearing a bullet-proof vest, to a maximum security prison for the night.

• Guatemala’s National Disaster Reduction Commission said on Monday that it had warned since last year that the site of last week’s landslide was unsafe.

The revelation came as the death toll in the disaster in Cambray, on the outskirts of Guatemala City, rose to 152, with hundreds of people still missing.