Peru’s former president Alan Garcia and some of his ministers had been the subject of extensive corruption allegations and an investigation related to bribes they’d allegedly accepted from a Brazilian contractor. This morning, when police arrived at his home to take him into custody, Garcia shot himself in the head.
He was rushed to a hospital and underwent surgery but has since died. Here’s the AP’s report . . .
LIMA, Peru (AP) — Former Peruvian President Alan GarcĂa underwent emergency surgery Wednesday after shooting himself in the head as police attempted to detain him amid corruption allegations in Latin America’s largest graft probe.
Health Minister Zulema Tomás said doctors provided cardiac resuscitation three times and were proceeding to operate on the 69-year-old former head of state at the JosĂ© Casimiro Ulloa Hospital in Peru’s capital city of Lima.
“The situation is very critical,” Tomás said. “It’s grave.”
Local television program ‘Hablemos Claro’ reported that when police arrived to GarcĂa’s residence to arrest him, the ex-president shut himself in his room and attempted to take his life.
Peru’s Health Ministry said GarcĂa was sent to the hospital at 6:45 a.m. local time.
“At this moment, the patient has been in an operating room at said hospital since 7:10 a.m.,” the ministry said.
The stunning turn of events comes four months after GarcĂa tried to seek asylum in Uruguay as prosecutors in Peru investigate allegations he illegally took payments from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. GarcĂa has professed his innocence and argued that he is the victim of false testimony by political enemies.
His lawyer, Erasmo Reyna, said outside the hospital he would seek justice for his client.
“We pray to God to give him strength,” he said amid a crush of reporters. “We will do everything in our power to revert this unjust situation.”
Nearby, Peruvians gathered to wait for more information from doctors and officials amid a wave of questions about the political consequences the Odebrecht investigation could still have on a nation in the throes of a political reckoning.
In Peru, all but one living former head of state is being investigated for corruption tied to the Odebrecht corruption scandal. The nation has gone further than any other country outside Brazil in prosecuting politicians.
Odebrecht admitted in a 2016 plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department that it paid nearly $800 million throughout Latin America in exchange for lucrative public works contracts.
Just last week, former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was also detained for alleged money laundering tied to the probe. Congressional allies said he was taken Tuesday night to a local clinic with high blood pressure.
On Wednesday, Alberto Quintanilla, a congressman from the left-leaning political party Nuevo Peru, expressed solidarity with the family of GarcĂa and said that he hoped officials “would advance knowledge of the truth” through their investigations, but also respect due process.
GarcĂa was a populist firebrand whose erratic first presidency in the 1980s was marked by hyperinflation, rampant corruption and the rise of the Shining Path guerrilla movement. When he returned to power two decades later he ran a more conservative government, helping usher in a commodities-led investment boom in which Odebrecht played a major supporting role.
He sought asylum in Uruguay’s embassy in Peru late last year, remaining there for a little more than two weeks before having his request denied.
In rejecting his claim, the South American nation’s embassy said there was no evidence to support GarcĂa’s contention that he was being targeted politically.
“In Peru, the three branches of government function freely and autonomously, especially in the case of judicial power,” Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez said.
GarcĂa had returned to his mansion in the leafy Miraflores neighborhood vowing to cooperate with prosecutors as they continued their investigation.
A judicial order obtained by The Associated Press shows Judge Juan Sanchez ordered authorities to arrest GarcĂa and search for documents in his home related to money laundering allegations.
Prosecutors suspect the former president received more than $100,000 from Odebrecht, disguised as a payment to speak at a conference in Brazil.
“The TRUTH about guns”in a Peruvian pols…suicide?!? Ummm…slow news day?
This might explain our potential interest: fromhttps://www.activeresponsetraining.net/back-from-the-peruvian-amazon-jungle
“– Background checks through three different government agencies
– A psychological test evaluating logic and basic hand eye coordination
– A psychiatric test to ensure that the gun owner is not mentally ill
– Passing a basic gun safety class taught by the National Police
– Handgun permits also require a shooting test. The qualification is shot on a silhouette target at 50 feet. Five shots are fired. One hit anywhere on the silhouette (or paying the tester 20 Peruvian Soles…approximately $7 dollars) passes the test. No shooting test is required for a long gun.
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According to the folks I spoke with, the entire permit process takes about two days to complete and costs around $150. That doesn’t seem bad based on our salaries, but the average Peruvian income is around $500 dollars a month. Considering that a separate permit is required for each gun owned, the $150 price is a steep cost for the average Peruvian.”
…so I suppose the point is that a corrupt government official can easily get a gun and the peasants can’t. No news here.
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Thanks for the background info.
Two rounds in the back of the head, right?
“He was cleaning his gun…”
“Prosecutors suspect the former president received more than $100,000 from Odebrecht, disguised as a payment to speak at a conference in Brazil.”
If that was a crime in America, half of our politicians would be going to jail. Heck, from 2001 till 2016 the Clintons made $153 million in speaking fees. I wonder how many of those were disguised bribes (Most of those speeches were to Foreign governments and big banks)
Umm, that would be….all of them?
For $153 million I’d give speeches to empty beer cans and fire hydrants…
Fuck that, I’d give speeches TO empty beer cans ABOUT fire hydrants for that kind of scratch. In public no less.
Yes, I thing that she was getting paid off for the Uranium One deal on a lot of that. Frankly the only thing I’d pay a clinton for is to terminatedly go away, forever!
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. This will go mega-viral. Let’s start a GO-fund-me to to get every crooked politics a gun and one bullet. They shouldn’t have named him. Conventional wisdom says this only breeds “copy cats” If only. come the Rising.
Man! He was cheap compared to Hillary and Obama!
It’s hard to see how this story relates to the truth about guns.
It doesn’t.
For some unknown reason though they want to associate this with the 2nd Amendment community.
Doing Bloombergs work for him.
South Korea ex president jumped off a ledge to his death years ago after his family was indicted.
Our former presidents wouldn’t think of doing this. In fact his wife still thinks she could be president and they both are doing stage shows
Speaking of corrupt politicians, this ‘lil nugget dropped today the the local paper, and I’m not sure what to make of it :
“Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried’s office cuts gun-license processing time in half, seeks money for additional staffing”
“TALLAHASSEE — The Florida agency that issues concealed weapons and armed security guard licenses has cut processing time by about half despite a surge in applications, but Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said the efficiencies aren’t sustainable unless the Legislature allows her to tap into a trust fund to hire more staff.
Fried took office in January with a promise to make changes at the Division of Licensing, which had come under scrutiny after reports of licenses being issue improperly.
Since then, the average time to issue an error-free application has dropped from 50 days to 20 days and the average time to review an application flagged because of errors or information in a background check has dropped from 88 days to 48 days, according to figure provided by the department. And that’s happened while the number of applications has increased from a previous year average of 13,806 a month to 23,537 last month.”
https://www.theledger.com/news/20190417/agriculture-commissioner-nikki-frieds-office-cuts-gun-license-processing-time-in-half-seeks-money-for-additional-staffing
The real question there is how many were denied. She is not a fan of CCWs, at least when she was appointed. she was all set on revoking improperly issued licenses. Has she had a change of heart and decided to do the job her office requires?
I seriously doubt it. She’s an anti to the *bone*.
It may be a combination of any little paperwork error gets denied, along with faster processing times?
The whole tone of it struck me as kinda… Strange.
I renewed my Florida concealed permit online.
It was fast and easy.
So it seems that despite being anti gun, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried is doing her job.
Well, sorry to hear of any suicide, barring any extenuating circumstances of evil behavior that harmed innocent people of course. But in Peru? A disgraced politician in Peru? I’ve travelled quite a bit in South America and even I do not care enough to see this on TTAG.
Just feels kind of ….. oh …. I dunno …. off topic maybe???
Exactly
Could be worse, had an FFL acquaintance , the law came to get him for molesting his daughters and with all them gunms around he drank a bottle of Drano…. Later on I met one of the EMT’s, he said the guy was literally puking his guts out. A fitting death.
What does this have to with guns, gun owners, the Second Amendment….?
I never see articles on car blogs about people who run over others with their cars. I never see knife blogs running stories about gang stabbings in Rio, nor MLB blogs addressing killings with baseball bats. Because none of it has anything to do with those enthusiast communities.
Who needs Moms Demand Action when our own writers constantly want to associate criminal or suicidal acts with the law abiding gun community?
Criminal shoots himself?
Too bad, so sad.