Former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo has recently been sentenced to 13 years and four months of effective prison. As a result, he got convicted on money laundering. A court in Lima has ruled anew to extend his original sentence even further. He now must serve a total of 20 years and six months for corruption, for accepting as much as $35 million in bribes from the Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht. Toledo, pictured above, was president from 2001 to 2006. He is the fifth former head of state from Peru to have landed in prison, caught up in a web of deep political crisis that still persists.
The court ruled that Toledo used Odebrecht’s bribe funds to purchase expensive properties. Prosecutors revealed that he and his wife directed $5.1 million toward purchasing a house and an office in an upscale neighborhood of Lima, as well as settling mortgages on two other properties. The prosecution cited the creation of an offshore company by Toledo in Costa Rica. This corporation assisted in laundering illegal proceeds for the purchases.
The Toledo case involved a yearlong trial that included voluminous evidence. Even after all this, he stupidly fought all allegations of money laundering and collusion tooth and nail. His legal team claimed that he had acted within his legal rights. The court’s decision to impose concurrent sentences was a major victory in the case. This decision received a fair share of media attention in the US and abroad.
Toledo’s upcoming sentence will be served in the police-run base prison of Lima. At 79 years old, he is still an unpredictable, polarizing actor in the Peruvian political game. His previous aspirations to run for president again in 2026 have now been dashed as he confronts the consequences of his actions.
The Odebrecht scandal has revealed complete corruption of most political leaders in all of Latin America. It points to a very disturbing pattern related to lucrative public works contracts. Toledo’s case should be a warning to anyone engaging in the political and legal blowback that follows from all this corrupt behavior.
