Former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo has called for justice in the Andean country do not allow your “death in prison” during an exclusive interview with EFE hours before handing himself over to US authorities this Friday as a step before being extradited.
“I ask the Peruvian justice to do it don’t kill me in prisonlet me argue with the arguments”, added the one who was head of the Peruvian Executive from 2001 to 2006 after “breaking the media silence” he has maintained for the past seven years.
Toledo, claimed by the justice of his country since the end of 2017, is accused of the alleged commission of the money laundering, collusion and trading in influence in relation to the contracts awarded to the Odebrecht company for the construction of the Interoceanic Route between Brazil and Peru.
From his apartment in the town of Menlo Park (San Francisco Bay, USA), the former president clarified any doubts about his delivery, scheduled for this Friday morning in a court of San José, in the state of California: “I will, I respect the judge’s (Thomas S. Hixson) decision, though don’t share it“.
It’s the last hours of Toledo in House arrest, condition he has enjoyed since 2020, after a year in a California prison, due to the dangers that the covid-19 health crisis could pose for his state of health.
Just that, his state of health, was the argument he used again and again stop the process with which he is accused of pocketing up to $35 million in bites who would later invest in real estate in Peru.
“My health is bad”
“My health is very poor. I take 14 pills a day, I have high blood pressure and suffer from it cancer residues (…) Respect it, they haven’t tried anything and they already want to put me in prison,” said Toledo under the watchful eye of the former first lady of Peru, Eliane Karp.
The achievement of being the first indigenous president of South America continues to be a source of pride for the politician popularly known as “The Colo”who assured that “this” is not forgiven because it meant “the liberation of the Fujimori dictatorship” (1990-2000) in Peru and because it “set the precedent” for the arrival of Pedro Castillo.
“Despite me I have nothing to do with him“, underlined the former president referring to Castillo, former president who was also deprived of his freedom since December last year after declaring a state of emergency in a maneuver considered by many to be an “autocoup”.
“I never received a single illicit dollar”
Despite the succession of accusations in which he is immersed, Toledo said he hated corruptionhe stressed that he “never” received “not even an illicit dollar” and compared his case to that of Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who spent 580 days in prison for a sentence that was later overturned.
“Me, who have been working to earn it since I was five years old?” The founder of the extinct Peru Posible party sarcastically slipped on his ties to Odebrecht.
Inside is the briefcase that bears the name of this Brazilian construction company the texture known as Lava Jato and it was the biggest corruption scandal in Latin American history.
Odebrecht has also splashed former Peruvian presidents Alan García (1985-1990 and 2006-2011), Ollanta Humala (2011-2016), Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018), as well as three-time presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000).
In this sense, Toledo has expressed his anger at the so-called “Effective Collaboration Agreement” with which a team of Peruvian prosecutors specializing in Lava Jato agreed with Odebrecht a number of repairs for having benefited from the public money of the Andean country.
“Why don’t you tell us the terms of that deal? Odebrecht continues to work the same way in Peru, even if he goes by another name; avoided paying a billion dollars and another six hundred in taxes,” Toledo said loudly.
Peru returned to “dictatorship”
He answered the question himself, arguing that Peru has returned to “dictatorship”, as the country is controlled by people close to Alberto Fujimori himself and who hold the real power because “they have ties to big companies and drug trafficking”.
“He drug dealer he had never been so comfortable as now. Life in Peru today is worthless“, said Toledo to underline that, in this context, he feels “fear” of the penitentiary system of the Latin American country.
For the former president the situation in prisons is “worse than that of regimes such as China, Iran or Sudan” because detainees suffer serious violations of their human rights.
In his attempt to avoid a Peruvian prison, the Andean politician has urged his country’s authorities to reconsider, because escaping by taking advantage of his situation under house arrest never occurs to him.
“I I’m not a fugitive like Fujimori. I moved to the place (San Francisco Bay) where I was trained (…). I wouldn’t run away even now, it would be admitting my guilt “, concluded Toledo a few hours before starting” a match that does not start from zero to zero “but which, he condemned, will fight” until the end “.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.