2006.12.21: December 21, 2006: Headlines: Figures: COS - Peru: Politics: BBC: Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo charged in Forgery Scheme
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2006.12.21: December 21, 2006: Headlines: Figures: COS - Peru: Politics: BBC: Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo charged in Forgery Scheme
Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo charged in Forgery Scheme
Mr Toledo is accused of involvement in faking thousands of signatures in order to register his Peru Possible party for elections in 2000. Mr Toledo is currently in the US, but will be barred from leaving Peru if he returns. When he left office in July, the new government opened an investigation into his alleged influence peddling, nepotism and misappropriation of funds. Mr Toledo denied all allegations against him and said he was a victim of political persecution. Alejandro Toledo grew up in Chimbote and was befriended by Peace Corps Volunteers who helped him study in the United States. Later he was a language instructor in Brockort's Peace Corps/College Degree Program. Elected President of Peru in 2000, Toledo invited the Peace Corps to return to Peru after a 27 year absence. He is presently a visiting Fellow at Stanford University.
Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo charged in Forgery Scheme
Former Peruvian president charged
Caption: Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo meets with President Bush in the oval office in July, 2006.
A judge in Peru has formally charged the former President, Alejandro Toledo, over allegations of document forgery and falsifying signatures.
Mr Toledo is accused of involvement in faking thousands of signatures in order to register his Peru Possible party for elections in 2000.
He lost the polls but won power in 2001 when predecessor Alberto Fujimori fled to Japan over a corruption scandal.
He denies the charges, which carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
A judge set bail at 50,000 soles ($15,600, £8,000) and ordered a freeze on 150,000 soles ($46,900, £24,000) of his assets.
Mr Toledo is currently in the US, but will be barred from leaving Peru if he returns.
His sister, Margarita, and 24 others were charged in December 2004 in connection with the case.
During his five-year term, Mr Toledo was dogged by scandals involving himself, his wife, aides and family members, says the BBC's Dan Collyns in Lima.
When he left office in July, the new government opened an investigation into his alleged influence peddling, nepotism and misappropriation of funds.
But on a return trip to Peru earlier this month, Mr Toledo denied all allegations against him and said he was a victim of political persecution, our correspondent adds.
Incoming Peruvian Governments have a habit of investigating their predecessors for corruption
The first García presidency and the Post-presidency
PCOL Comment: In our thirty-five years following Peruvian politics, one thing that stands out is that it not unusual for incoming Peruvian governments to investigate their predecessors for corruption. As an example, read this excerpt from Wikipedia on the present President of Peru, Alan Garcia, and how he went into exile and was investigated for corruption after his first term in office.
Caption: Peruvian President Alan Garcia meets with President Bush in the oval office in November, 2006.
"García's presidency left the country with hyperinflation, isolated from the international financial community, with negative reserves of US$900 million, continuous subversive activities by the Shining Path, great increase in poverty levels and an electric train multi-million investment in Lima that was never finished. His critics claim the many poor decisions he took while in office created an environment that lead to the rise of an authoritarian leader like Alberto Fujimori. Some suspect García and APRA cut a deal with Fujimori during the 1990 election, backing him in return for immunity, so as to prevent Mario Vargas Llosa and his FREDEMO party, then leading in the polls, from coming to power. During the campaign, Vargas Llosa had promised to investigate corruption in the García administration.
In 1992, García went into exile to Colombia and later to France after Fujimori's auto-coup during which the military raided his house. The new government re-opened charges against him for allegedly taking millions of dollars in bribes. He denied the charges, and in 2001 Peru's Supreme Court ruled that the statute of limitations had run out. There were charges of corruption involved in this decision, as at the same time a law was struck down by Congress which prevented anyone who had been investigated for charges of corruption in a public office to run for president (what his supporters in Congress dubbed the "anti-Alan law"). García could not justify how he had homes in the richest neighbourhoods of Bogotá and Paris, in addition to having his daughter enrolled in a top private school in France, if his only alleged income was from being an occasional guest speaker and the author of a few books with poor sales. His long-time ally Jorge Del Castillo represented him as his lawyer and performed very heavy lobbying for allowing García to legally return to Peru. After Castillo was elected to Congress, he had much more leverage for García's defence.
After living eight years and ten months in neighbouring Colombia and in France, he returned to Peru in 2001, following Alberto Fujimori's resignation from the presidency. As it had been rumoured for many years, García ran for president in the new elections called by transitory president Valentín Paniagua, with Jorge Del Castillo as his campaign manager. García competed against some of his harshest critics and worst political enemies, including Lourdes Flores Nano and Fernando Olivera. García's theme during this election campaign was that he was the most experienced candidate and thus the most prepared, as he had made mistakes before as President, and had learned from them. He attributed all the problems of the Peruvian economy in his first presidency to the economic problems of Argentina and Brazil at the time. He distanced himself from accusations that he had been protected by Fujimori during his exile, and he would switch the topic when he was asked about his endorsement of Fujimori in the 1990 election.
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Headlines: December, 2006; Friends: Alejandro Toledo; Figures; Peace Corps Peru; Directory of Peru RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Peru RPCVs; Politics
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Story Source: BBC
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