The ex-president Alexander Toledo He reappeared virtually yesterday, from California, in the United States, to testify in the oral trial of former president Ollanta Humala and his wife Nadine Heredia, who are charged with the crime of money laundering for alleged illicit contributions from the Venezuelan Government of Hugo Chávez in the 2006 election campaign and the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in the 2011 elections.
The former leader of Peru Possible declared before the Third National Collegiate Criminal Court that he had no concrete evidence that Ollanta Humala received suitcases with US$850,000 in cash from the late Venezuelan ruler Hugo Chávez in 2006.
However, he recalled that it was his then prime minister, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who told him that the intelligence service was suspicious of the diplomatic briefcases coming from Caracas.
Interrogated by prosecutor Germán Juárez Atoche, a member of the Lava Jato special team, Toledo explained that, due to this suspicion, he had “discrepancies” about the “democratic perspectives” in the region with President Hugo Chávez, with whom he communicated by phone to ask him to stop interfering in the 2006 elections and condemn his attacks against Humala Tasso’s political contenders. In addition, he recalled that he requested the withdrawal of the ambassadors after that incident.
When asked about his statements in a 2015 interview, in which he stated that during his government “we found a diplomatic bag with US$850,000”, he replied that they were in a “political” tone and that he declared in that sense because he was in a campaign. presidential.
Wilfredo Pedraza, Ollanta Humala’s lawyer, told Peru21 that Toledo was ratified in the version provided to the Prosecutor’s Office in 2016 in the preparatory investigation stage. According to what he pointed out, the oral trial against his sponsor —begun on February 21— has already cited more than 40% of the witnesses.
KNEW THAT
- Humala and Heredia face requests for 20 and 26 years in prison, respectively, for money laundering.
- Toledo has been under house arrest in the US since March 2020, as part of a trial in which he is accused of having received up to US$35 million from Odebrecht.
