Head down and in a wheelchair. The first images of Alejandro Toledo, 77, before boarding the first flight with a final destination in the Barbadillo prison in Lima, reflected the defeat of the person who presided over Peru for five years at the beginning of the century. The long judicial battle to avoid his extradition from the United States has taken its toll on the leader of Perú Posible, the same man who managed to defeat Alberto Fujimori; the same one who led the historic March of the Four His, essential to end the dictatorship.
The second flight between Los Angeles and Lima is scheduled to land at 7:30 a.m. local time (2:30 p.m. in Spain), accompanied at all times by US marshals, who will hand him over to the authorities at the Jorge Chávez airport amidst the expectation national.
The whims of fate will unite him again with Fujimori, one of the two current tenants of Barbadillo. The other is the coup leader Pedro Castillo, president until last December when his attempt to reverse the Peruvian constitutional order failed. The National Penitentiary Institute has already recognized that it is “very likely” that Toledo, for security reasons, will also end up in the presidents’ prison.
On “El Cholo”, who for years symbolized the democratic hope of the Andean country, weighs an 18-month preventive prison sentence, established by some judges and claimed by prosecutors who have repeatedly shown that they do not cower before political power of his country. Prosecutor José Domingo Pérez, who has led the investigation into the scandal involving the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, has requested a 20-year prison sentence for money laundering and collusion. It is estimated that Toledo received at least $35 million in bribes.
“I ask the Peruvian justice not to kill me in jail, let me fight with arguments,” Toledo told Agencia Efe on Thursday after losing his last judicial round to avoid extradition. The former president was forced to turn himself in last Friday to the US authorities, after remaining in the US since 2017 as a fugitive from justice in his country, which issued an international arrest warrant.
Being a former president in Peru is one of the most risky jobs. In addition to the three imprisoned, three others face difficult judicial processes. The leftist Ollanta Humala faces, together with his wife, the mega-trial in which he is not only accused of receiving money from Odebrecht. Prosecutors want to show that Hugo Chávez also financed part of his first campaign.
Accusations in the same scandal also remain against the conservative Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, although in recent weeks the court has revoked his impediments to leaving the country and to grant statements to the press.
Against his successor, Martín Vizcarra, there is an accusation of 15 years in prison for alleged bribery during his time as governor.
Another president in two different periods, Alan García, shot himself before being arrested by the Police.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
