After more than 170 court hearings and a complex extradition process from the United States, Alejandro Toledo Manrique He was sentenced to prison this Monday for he Lava Jato Case. The Judiciary sentenced the man who at the beginning of this century embodied the return to democracy and led the marches that brought down the Fujimori regime to 20 years and six months in prison for the crimes of collusion and money laundering, capitalizing on its features. Andeans to establish himself as the heir of the Inca Pachacutec.
In July 2001, on his first day as president, Toledo took the oath symbolically in the Sacsayhuaman Fortress, in Cusco, just as the Incas did in the time of Tahuantinsuyo, then he climbed to the heights of Machu Picchu and, in the middle with a mystical aura, he said with histrionics: “I come to ask you, millennial Cusco, for strength to overthrow unemployment and poverty in Peru, no longer to overthrow a dictatorship.” Two decades later, that heroism of Toledo has become dust, and his destiny, like that of other heads of state who fell into the clutches of corruption, will be to spend his last days behind bars.
The Prosecutor’s Office has argued that Toledo, 78, received $35 million in bribes to benefit Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in the concession of sections 2 and 3 of the South Interoceanic Highway, back in 2004 and 2005. “I never made any arrangement with Mr. Barata […]. “They have brought me into this issue without knowing why,” the economist said last week in his latest defense. The statements of Brazilian engineer Jorge Barata, former head of Odebrecht in Peru, were key to supporting the accusation.
During the reading of the sentence, Toledo, in a shirt and jacket, was seen very active, taking notes, scratching his eyebrows, crossing his hands and whispering with his lawyer, Roberto Su. The event took place a few meters from the Barbadillo prison, located in the Ate district east of Lima, where the leader of the defunct Perú Posible party has been held since April 2023 after being extradited from the United States. The room of the National Directorate of Special Operations (Dinoes) was inaugurated in August with the purpose of processing imprisoned former presidents. Since the release of Alberto Fujimori, the only guests of said prison are Toledo and Pedro Castillo.
“I am a statistical error. I come from a family of sixteen brothers and sisters, six twins, and I have been the only one who had the privilege of being able to go study abroad, to have reached the highest levels, academically and professionally. […]. “I don’t understand why love for my country brings me here,” said Alejandro Toledo recently, whose defense has consisted of exalting his success story — he was born in a populated center in the Ancash region and studied at the universities of San Francisco and Stanford. , highlighting his state of health—he has prostate cancer and heart disease—and denying any link with him. Lava Jato Case.
The truth is that the court indicated that Prosecutor José Domingo Pérez, of the Lava Jato Special Team, showed that Alejandro Toledo “colluded with individuals,” and had “unusual interference to accelerate the bidding process” of sections 2 and 3 of the Southern Interoceanic Highway, a road project that connects Peru and Brazil. In addition, he determined that “to obtain the bribe money, he convinced his friend Josef Maiman to be his intermediary and receive, through his companies, the bribe from Odebrecht.” The Public Ministry maintains that, in addition to the $35 million, Toledo would have received another $30 million between 2006 and 2011 thanks to a money laundering scheme operated by Israeli businessman Josef Maiman, who died in 2021.
“More than a sacred cholo, Alejandro Toledo was one of the many profane politicians who succumbed to frivolity and corruption. He had the opportunity to be the president of the return to democracy and he preferred to be the president of the return to kleptocracy,” said political analyst Gonzalo Banda. Alejandro Toledo’s partner, the former first lady, of Jewish descent, Eliane Karp He must also respond to Peruvian justice. She is under an 18-month preventive detention order since 2017, as well as a request for a sentence of 16 years and eight months since 2019 for the alleged crime of money laundering. Karp has been in Israel since May 2023, a country with which Peru does not have an extradition treaty.
The sentence imposed on Alejandro Toledo will be calculated from April 23, 2023 and will end on October 22, 2043, when he will be 97 years old. “I ask you please to [consideren] in the decision they make [que] I have a very complicated health condition. I have cancer, I have heart problems and in a few months I will be 80 years old,” said the economist in one of his last attempts to persuade the court. It has also been determined that in the case of Toledo there will be no suspension of the sentence because his extradition process caused damage to the Peruvian State. After hearing the sentence, the man who once represented democratic hope crossed his fingers and walked slowly to his cell.