CURITIBA, Brazil, April 24, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Odebrecht’s former chief in
Peru told corruption investigators the firm helped finance the 2006 election
campaign of former Peruvian president Alan Garcia, who committed suicide last
week, Peru’s public prosecutor said Tuesday.
Garcia, who was 69, shot himself dead at his home in Lima last Wednesday,
as police arrived to arrest him over allegations of money laundering during
his time in office.
He was suspected of accepting bribes from Brazilian construction giant
Odebrecht in return for large-scale public works contracts.
Peru’s public prosecutor Rafael Vela told journalists in Curitiba, Brazil,
that Jorge Barata confirmed Odebrecht funded Garcia’s APRISTA party during
the 2006 campaign, in which he won a second term, having already been
president from 1985-90.
According to Peruvian newspaper El Comercio, Barata said Odebrecht gave
$200,000 to Garcia’s 2006 campaign through an advisor, Luis Alva Castro.
Before his suicide, Garcia insisted he was innocent.
Barata’s evidence follows a cooperation agreement signed between Odebrecht
and Peru’s public prosecutor in December.
As part of the deal, Odebrecht must pay $182 million to Peru in civil
reparations, an amount based on the four projects the Brazilian firm gained
through paying bribes.
The company paid $788 million in bribes throughout a dozen Latin American
countries to obtain major public works contracts over a decade, according to
the US Department of Justice.
Odebrecht has admitted to paying $29 million in bribes in Peru between 2005
and 2014.
Garcia was one of four Peruvian ex-presidents embroiled in various
corruption scandals — alongside Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-18), Ollanta
Humala (2011-16) and Alejandro Toledo (2001-06).
On Friday, a Peruvian judge ordered Kuczynski be held in pre-trial
detention for up to three years as investigators look into allegations he
received kickbacks from Odebrecht.