With the arrest of former president Martín Vizcarra, the reflectors focus again on the Barbadillo prison, which today houses four Peruvian ex -presidents.
The Vizcarra case is not an isolated episode. It is the continuity of a chain of scandals that has marked the last tenants of the palace and has turned Barbadillo a symbol of the country’s political crisis.
The entry of the founder of Peru first occurred yesterday morning, in compliance with the order of Judge Jorge Chávez Tamariz, who one day before dictated preventive detention for five months, arguing danger of escape.
Vizcarra is accused of its own passive bribery in the Lomas de Ilo and Regional Hospital of Moquegua, works awarded between 2011 and 2014, when she was regional governor. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, he would have received S/2.3 million in bribes for both projects.
His lawyer, Erwin Siccha, declared Peru21 that will appeal the judicial decision as soon as it receives the notification, which at the close of this edition had not yet arrived. He explained that, once the appeal is presented – what would happen within five days – the Judiciary will have 15 days to summon the hearing and resolve.
The other three former presidents
The list of former heads of state in Barbadillo is completed with Alejandro Toledo, sentenced to 20 years and six months for corruption in the Lava Jato case; Ollanta Humala, sentenced in April to 15 years for money laundering after receiving alleged illicit contributions from Odebrecht; and Pedro Castillo, held since December 2022, accused of trying a coup d’etat.
Barbadillo is not a common prison. Built in 2007 to house Alberto Fujimori after his extradition from Chile, it works within the headquarters of the Directorate of Special Operations (DIROES) in ATE and is under administration of the INPE. It has individual cells, private bathrooms and common areas. Without overcrowding or endless bars, the nickname of “The VIP prison” has earned.
Fujimori was his first inmate, from 2007 to December 2017, when he received a humanitarian pardon from Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. He returned in January 2019, after the cancellation of the pardon, and remained there until December 2023, when the Constitutional Court ordered its freedom. He died in September 2024, at his home.
I knew that
-Coimas separately. Prosecutor Germán Juárez said at the Wednesday hearing that Vizcarra received S/1 million in coimas for Lomas de Ilo, and S/1.3 million by the Moquegua hospital.
-In three or four months. According to prosecutor Juárez, Vizcarra’s trial will end in three or four months and that is why no more preventive detention time was requested.
