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News > Latin America

Ex-Peruvian President Accused Of Receiving Bribes For Contracts

  • Peru was close ally of the US under Alan Garcia

    Peru was close ally of the US under Alan Garcia | Photo: https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov

Published 1 May 2019
Opinion

Odebrecht is the scandal-ridden Brazilian construction company that is accused of paying bribes for public contracts in numerous Latin American countries.

More evidence emerged on Tuesday in regards to corruption allegations against the late Alan Garcia, the former President of Peru. An Odebrecht director admitted to organising, through an intermediary, a US$200,000 bribe to Garcia.

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The bribe is said to have been sent in 2006 as a contribution to Garcia’s 2006 election campaign, which was to be the start of his second term as president. Contributions were sent on the understanding that the company would be privileged in the granting of large state contracts. Odebrecht is the scandal-ridden Brazilian construction company that is accused of paying bribes for public contracts in numerous Latin American countries.

Peru is currently holding a large-scale inquiry into the company’s relationship with politicians after previous President Kuczynski was forced to resign after his links to the company were revealed. Corruption is a particularly sensitive issue in Peru, as every single one of its living ex-presidents (6 excluding Garcia) is either in jail for corruption (one faces charges of human rights abuses), or has fled the country to escape the same allegations.

The bribe is said to have been paid by Peru’s then-director for Odebrecht, Jorge Barata. Barata admitted to allegations, and detailed how he passed it through an intermediary, Luis Alva Castro, who would go on to be Alan Garcia’s interior minister after the election campaign that Odebrecht had funded.

The 2006 election was marked by anti-left discourse, as Alan Garcia accused his leftist rival Ollanta Humala of being supported by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.

The public prosecutor Rafael Vela Barba believes the evidence offered by Barata is satisfactory, commenting “Jorge Barata has been rigorous in his responses over Odebrecht contributions to the APRA party 2006 campaign]...his information corroborates with the prosecutors case entirely”

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