Martin Vizcarra, the former president who once had 80% approval, will follow the path taken by almost all the men who have held power in Peru over the past 40 years: prison. He was sentenced on Wednesday to 14 years in prison for receiving bribes worth 2.3 million soles ($680,000) from two construction companies (Obrainsa and ICCGSA) in exchange for favoring them in awarding Lomas de Ilo projects and rebuilding Moquegua Hospital when he was governor of that region in the south of the country.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, the corruption charter was drawn up in 2013. The revelation of this case was the impetus for Vizcarra’s dismissal due to permanent moral incapacity in November 2020 after 32 months in office. Vizcarra took over from economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and achieved the peak of his popularity in 2019 by dissolving Congress, but then his reputation collapsed for conducting the continent’s largest vaccine smuggling operation during the pandemic. He secretly got vaccinated and allowed about 500 people from the wealthiest spheres to do so as well, while Peru led with the world’s highest coronavirus death rate.
he Get vaccinated This left him reeling, but it was the bribes that determined his downfall. During the five years that the investigation took, former executives of the Operiensa consortium admitted that they paid 1 million soles (about $300,000) to Vizcarra to win Lomas de Ilo, an ambitious irrigation project. In contrast, senior officials of Ingenieros Civiles y Contratistas Generales SA (ICCGSA) underwent a process of active cooperation with the judicial system and also admitted to disbursing one million three hundred thousand soles ($385,000) to Vizcarra to obtain a tender for the expansion of Moquegua Hospital.
While reading the ruling, in the presence of the former president, the court determined the “credibility and coherence” of the aforementioned testimonies. Furthermore, they emphasized that no trace of hatred or hostility could be demonstrated that would reduce its reliability. The method of bribery does not fit with the expert reports carried out by the police. Obrainsa managers reported that they delivered the bribe in Manila envelopes with the highest denomination: 200 soles ($59).
Martín Vizcarra’s defense has repeated from the beginning that these accusations are false and that there is no video, image or audio proving that his client benefited from illicit funds. This was on Monday in an interview with a magazine HildebrandtThe civil engineer denied these accusations again, and stressed that the whole matter was a “mafia pact” seeking to remove him from the political scene. LizardHe intended, as his opponents call him, to run for vice president in the 2026 general elections under the umbrella of his brother Mario Vizcarra, of the Peruvian Primero group, but the National Office of Electoral Operations (ONPE) excluded him from the race due to his ineligibility to hold public office.
“They may exclude me from the process, but not from the hearts of Peruvians,” he said at the time on his social networks, an area he knows well. “They will not break us.” Vizcarra is known for his ability to capitalize on his troubles with the law and gain sympathy from young people on digital platforms. His popularity exploded thanks to small clips and live broadcasts, where he performs everyday activities. It is a simple formula that other politicians did not know how to implement.
Martin Vizcarra, 62, was convicted in the lower court of passive bribery. His defense confirmed that he would appeal the ruling. But in the meantime he will serve his sentence in Barbadillo, the unusual prison for former presidents east of Lima, in the Ati region. He will be a cellmate of Alejandro Toledo, Ollanta Humala, and Pedro Castillo. A few months ago, he had been detained there, but it had only been a few weeks. He was placed in pretrial detention due to flight risk. He was even transferred to a prison for common prisoners, but the sentence was eventually overturned. An introduction to what his life will be like from now on.
Martin Vizcarra is the fifth former president who will spend several seasons at Barbadillo. The first was Alberto Fujimori. He will be released from prison at the age of 76 in 2039. “The Lizard” was the member of Congress who received the most votes in 2021, with more than 165,000 votes. But after he was excluded, he had to give up his seat to a 30-year-old lawyer who was waiting for his place in the alternative seat. José Jerre, the man who rules Peru through the butterfly effect.