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Guatemala City, Guatemala (CNN) -- Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo can be extradited to the United States to face money laundering charges, judges in Guatemala ruled unanimously.

Portillo, who was president from 2000 to 2004, is accused of laundering $70 million through U.S. banks. He has repeatedly denied the accusations.

"We have maintained since the beginning that this is political persecution and it is easy to show it," said Telesforo Guerra, Portillo's attorney.

The Constitutional Court judges upheld Friday a previous court ruling authorizing the extradition of the former president and denied an appeal presented by his defense.

Current President Alvaro Colom will have the final say. He can either approve the court's ruling or pardon Portillo.

Guatemala City, Guatemala (CNN) -- Three leading candidates for Guatemala's presidency sparred over policy proposals, but unanimously slammed the country's security situation in a debate co-hosted by CNN en Español Thursday night.

The Central American nation faces high levels of violence coupled with widespread corruption, the candidates said.

A complicated combination of factors fuel the problems, candidates told audience members at the debate, which was co-hosted by CNN affiliate Canal 3.

"There are no job opportunities," said candidate Eduardo Suger. "There is an absence of an effective justice system, an effective penitentiary system. There are external components, the flow of drug trafficking plus the internal factors of unemployment and the absence of opportunities."

But candidates differed sharply on the best ways to confront rising drug violence and the growing grasp of organized crime.

Candidate Manuel Baldizon of the Leader Party proposed creating a new national guard to take the lead on fighting drug syndicates that he said were increasingly coming across Guatemala's border with Mexico.

Suger -- whose CREO Party acronym stands for commitment, renewal and order -- disputed that approach, arguing that existing forces must develop more sophisticated operations.

"The population cannot wait ... years would go by before anything happened," he said.

Candidate Otto Perez Molina of the Patriotic Party called for a "firm-handed" approach. The former military general called for "elite units of the army" to play a larger role.

"We are proposing the change that is necessary in Guatemala and we are ready to propel it forward," Perez Molina said when asked to summarize his candidacy in a few words.

Suger, an academic who is running for the second time, described himself as a "different kind of candidate." Baldizon, a businessman, introduced himself as a married Christian with two children. Polls have placed the two candidates tied for a second place spot behind Perez Molina.