The Lava Jato operation, the huge corruption plot born in Brazil's Petrobras, which has crippled all of Latin America through bribery by the construction company Odebrecht, has brought to jail the first foreign political leader. And it has not been the former Brazilian president Lula da Silva, sentenced to nine years in prison for corruption, but has avoided the prison pending the appeal. Those imprisoned for 18 months in pre-trial detention by a Peruvian judge in the night from Thursday to Friday are former president Ollanta Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia.
Two days after the prosecutor asked for it, Judge Richard Concepcion Carhuancho of the First National Preparatory Investigation Court issued 18 months in pre-trial detention against whoever was president of Peru from 2011 to 2016 and against his wife and successor at the head of the Party Nationalist Peruvian, Nadine Heredia. Both are accused of money laundering for the funds that their party allegedly received from the Government of Venezuela and the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht for the campaigns of 2006 and 2011. "Here we have a president who came to power and ruled through an election campaign based In illicit money. That is serious because it hurts society morally, "prosecutor Germán Juárez was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Once the resolution was known, the couple - who were in their residence following the details of the hearing for which the prosecutor requested their admission to prison - went in their private car to the Justice Palace in the center of Lima to surrender. They spent the first night in the dungeon of the building. On the way, both had time to post their reactions on Twitter. Humala wrote: "This is the confirmation of the abuse of power, which we will face, in defense of our rights and the rights of all." Shortly before, Heredia had launched: "Despite the arbitrariness we are here, we are confident that this decision will be reversed as justice. We trust in our country! "
On Friday, the judge ordered Humala to be sent to Barbadillo prison, where his predecessor, Alberto Fujimori, is being held. His wife will go to the only women's prison in Lima. The situation of both will be reviewed in the coming weeks by the National Criminal Appeals Chamber, which will confirm or revoke the measure.
Confession
The prison petition was filed Tuesday by provincial prosecutor Germán Juárez, who relied on recently incorporated elements of the investigation, such as statements by Jorge Barata, former Odebrecht representative in Peru. According to Barata told a group of Peruvian prosecutors, in mid-2010 he received a call in which the owner of the construction company, Marcelo Odebrecht, ordered him to make donations for the campaign of the Nationalist Party, which nominated Humala.
These were requested, always according to his testimony, by the Workers' Party of former President Lula da Silva. Marcelo Odebrecht himself later told the Brazilian court: "The Odebrecht Group (...) would have sent, through the Department of Structured Operations [the negotiated one that made opaque payments], three million dollars to the candidate for the presidency of Peru Ollanta Humala ". Something this and his wife deny.
The actions of justice have not been without criticism, such as the fact that the prosecutor has three years of investigation without having made an accusation so far. At the moment, the investigation has led the judge to the conviction that there are elements of crime, which can be presumed a manipulation of the evidence of the case, and that there is danger that Humala and Heredia try to leave the country, so that imprisonment Is a proportional measure.
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