Interview: Shunning justice not to be tolerated in Peru -- expert

Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-21 15:49:26|Editor: MJ
Video PlayerClose

by Xia Lin, Jia Anping

LIMA, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Despite Peru's effort to crack the corrupt network associated with Brazil's bribe-spreading infrastructure-building giant Odebrecht, a mega-suspect is still at large, a situation that is intolerable to the country, an expert said.

"It is a problem that is affecting us. We have to rethink how we are behaving like society, like human. We have become very individualized," Ines Tello, a judicial consultant, told Xinhua in Lima.

"That individualism has made us lose that perspective to see the others and share solidarity," said Tello.

Odebrecht's executives allegedly paid three former presidents, namely Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006), Alan Garcia (2006-2011), and Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) and several ministers of Peru in exchange for business favors.

Toledo was accused of money laundering and influence peddling, after he fled to the U.S. city of San Francisco. According to the justice, he received 20 million U.S. dollars as commission to help Odebrecht win contracts to build several highways in Peru.

The Supreme Court has declared in his absence to impose 18 months of preventive imprisonment on him and mobilized Interpol to put him to justice.

Public anger erupted on February 16, 2017, when more than 5,000 people took to the streets in Lima, demanding punishment for corruption.

The protesters denounced graft as a tumor of the society, which had impeded the country from further development.

Meanwhile, Peru has asked the United States to extradite Toledo, but the request was turned down for lack of evidence.

The Public Ministry and the National Police raided his house in Lima in February, trying to spot the much needed clues of his alleged graft. The government also offered 30,000 U.S. dollars as reward for any information of Toledo's whereabouts.

Toledo said in France in April that he was being politically prosecuted. There were signals that he may move to Israel, which is his wife's motherland.

Peru immediately contacted Israel, which said Toledo's entry would be refused.

According to the Office of the Ombudsman of Peru, there are currently 32,925 cases of corruption at the national level, and only 695 of them have been transferred to justice.

Up to 4 billion U.S. dollars was lost annually due to graft in Peru. A national poll said that 75 percent of the population demanded that the crime be dealt with determination and political will.

"If the government doesn't denounce (corruption), if the judiciary branch doesn't sanction, impunity will be actually generated and that is the worst," said Tello. "That is a citizen's perception and for that reason the crimes of corruption continue to be committed."

TOP STORIES
EDITOR’S CHOICE
MOST VIEWED
EXPLORE XINHUANET
010020070750000000000000011100001363023571