Peru hunts former president Toledo over graft claims

LIMA: Peruvian police launched a manhunt Friday for expresident Alejandro Toledo, once hailed as an anti-corruption champion, after a judge ordered his arrest over accusations he took US$20 million in bribes.

Authorities offered a 30,000 reward for information to help them capture Toledo, who rose from poverty to lead the fight against a graft-stained government in the 1990s, then served as Peru’s first indigenous president from 2001 to 2006.

Toledo, 70, was initially believed to be in Paris. But the Peruvian government said Friday it now has information he is in San Francisco and could try to flee to Israel.

Authorities in both countries have been alerted, it said in a statement.

“US authorities have been asked to cooperate in detaining and deporting him,” it said.

Toledo is a visiting professor at Stanford University, near San Francisco, where he graduated with a PhD in economics. His wife, Eliane Karp, has Israeli citizenship.

A judge ordered an international arrest warrant for Toledo Thursday, granting prosecutors’ request to jail him for 18 months pending a full investigation.

The former president is accused of taking bribes from scandalplagued Brazilian construction company Odebrecht to give the firm a juicy contract for a highway linking Brazil and Peru.

He denies the accusations, branding them political persecution.

But he has struggled to explain where the money came from.

He originally said it was a loan from his mother-in-law that came from compensation she received as a Holocaust survivor.

But his former vice president, David Waisman — himself a prominent member of Peru’s Jewish community — said that was untrue.

“Lies just flow out of him,” he said, adding a message for his former boss: “If it turns out you’re guilty and you go to jail, then rot in there.” — AFP