The former president Martin Vizcarra Cornejo exercised his right to defense by presenting his final arguments before the Judiciary, within the framework of the oral trial that is investigating him for alleged acts of corruption related to the works Lomas de Ilo and the Moquegua Hospitalcommitted when he served as regional governor.
In his speech, Vizcarra argued that he felt already sanctioned by public opinioncriticizing the way the cases were exposed publicly. “I have already been punished for acts that do not respect the Public Ministry’s own principles,” said the former president, alluding to the fact that the information about the investigations was revealed by Sunday programs while the process was still in the preliminary investigation stage.
After hearing Vizcarra’s final defense, the court in charge of the judicial process determined that the reading of the sentence for this case will be next Wednesday, November 26 of this year.
Final arguments of Martín Vizcarra
In the last minutes of the hearing, former president Martín Vizcarra took the floor to provide his final arguments. He began by expressing his total availability to collaborate with justice: “I will always show my face because I have always said I am innocent of the events that are being seen today.” He added that this would be the reason why he never thought about the possibility of escape or asylum from foreign embassies.
Likewise, Vizcarra denounced that, just one week before the Prosecutor’s Office concluded the preliminary investigation and formalized the beginning of the preparatory investigation (the formal judicial process), all the businessmen and representatives of the companies were excluded from the process, leaving him as the only defendant against whom the criminal action was initiated.
He added that the evidence accusing him of having committed acts of corruption with Obrainsa would not be supported, since on the dates of which he is accused – November 4, 5 and 6, 2013 – he would not have been in Lima with the representative of the Peruvian company, but in Moquegua. This would be supported with photographs, according to the former president.
Vizcarra also explained that, upon taking office as Minister of Transportation in the Government of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, he confirmed that “all MTC tenders were overvalued by 108%.” This observation led him to file the respective complaint, a fact that, according to him, triggered the investigation by the Public Ministry and the subsequent revelation of the scheme known as the “Construction Club”.
The former president asserted that the companies ICCGSA and Obrainsa –precisely those involved in the Lomas de Ilo and Hospital de Moquegua cases that are on trial– participated in “112 low-level tenders in the Ministry of Transportation.” With this statement, Vizcarra sought to establish a contrast with his current judicial situation.
