BY FRANCES ROBLES AND CATHERINE ELTON

 GUATEMALA CITY -- A former Guatemalan interior minister was arrested Thursday over an embezzlement scheme in which high-ranking federal officials are accused of siphoning millions of federal dollars to personal bank accounts so they could collect the interest.

 Congressman Byron Barrientos, a leading member of the ruling FRG party who until October was interior minister, was the only suspect who did not flee.

 Barrientos was the army intelligence director during the 1970s and 1980s, when the armed forces committed atrocities in the civil war. He was fired in 1989, allegedly for involvement in a coup plot. He was named interior minister in July 2000, despite widespread controversy surrounding his appointment.

 Guatemala's banking superintendent said he discovered last fall that Barrientos' two vice interior ministers, a budget officer and an underling transferred up to $3.6 million to personal accounts so they could collect the interest and then put the money back. Up to $3 million is missing.

 One vice minister on the run, Luis Gonzales Archila García, is believed to be in Miami, one prosecutor said.

 As their boss, Barrientos is accused of negligence. Even the special prosecutor assigned to the case acknowledged that although Barrientos was stripped of his
 immunity, charged with embezzlement, and his bank accounts frozen, there is no evidence directly linking him to the scheme.

 ``He is totally innocent,'' said Barrientos' attorney and sister, Lucrecia Barrientos Tobar. ``He is the only person facing the process because he has a clean conscience.''

 Barrientos evaded jail Thursday by saying that an ulcer made him too ill.

 ``He failed in his duties,'' said special prosecutor Ramiro Coronado. ``Why didn't he come forward when he learned of this so we could arrest these men?''

 President Alfonso Portillo's government has been hit in recent months with an onslaught of corruption allegations, ranging from its ministries of communication, finance, agriculture and education. His vice president, Juan Francisco Reyes, is under investigation over accusations of using a state printing office for a smear campaign.

 It is believed to be the first time a government minister has faced criminal charges in Guatemala. Experts take it as a sign that Guatemala is finally leaving its days of
 impunity and seeking justice against functionaries who loot state funds.

                                    © 2002