Peru ex-prez kills himself before bust

Peru’s former president Alan Garcia died Wednesday hours after he shot himself in the head as police were at his house to arrest him on corruption charges.

Garcia’s death was a shocking development in a bribery scandal that has embroiled dozens of major figures across Latin America. He underwent emergency surgery at a hospital in Lima, the country’s capital, but suffered three cardiac arrests after the procedure and died soon after, according to multiple Peruvian news outlets.

The 69-year-old served two terms as president of Peru, from 1985 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2011.

Garcia (photo) was one of several leaders, former officials and businessmen implicated in an international graft scandal unveiled in 2016 when Brazilian construction company Odebrecht admitted to bribing politicians in exchange for lucrative contracts across the region.

Two other former Peruvian presidents have been formally charged in the case, which is known as Operation Car Wash.

Garcia’s suicide comes on the same day Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, another former president, was taken from jail to a hospital because of high blood pressure. Kuczynski, 80, resigned last year after he was accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Odebrecht. He was detained just days ago.

Police went to Garcia’s home Wednesday to place him in pretrial detention. Interior Minister Carlos Moran said in a news conference that Garcia told officers he was going to call his lawyer from his bedroom. Seconds later, they heard a gunshot, according to La Republica.

“Dismayed by the death of former president Alan Garcia’s,” the current president, Martin Vizcarra, said on Twitter. “I send my condolences to his family and loved ones.”

Garcia had denied any wrongdoing, tweeting as recently as this week that there was no evidence against him and that his accusers were “the real crooks.”