MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former Peruvian President Vizcarra placed under preventive arrest

Vizcarra is under investigation for allegedly receiving bribes as governor of Moquegua between 2011 and 2014

Peru's Seventh National Preliminary Investigation Court ordered five months of preventive detention for former President Martín Vizcarra (2018-2020) on charges of passive bribery. In his ruling, Judge Jorge Chávez Tamariz cited procedural and flight risks, ordering the sentence to be enforced immediately.

Vizcarra is accused of receiving over 2.3 million soles (about US$611,000) in bribes from the Ingenieros Civiles y Contratistas Generales S.A. (ICCGSA) and Obrainsa construction companies - for the Lomas de Ilo and Moquegua Hospital projects - while he was governor of the Moquegua region between 2011 and 2014.

The magistrate acquiesced to a request from the Public Prosecutor's Office while the investigation into the Lomas de Ilo and Moquegua Hospital cases continues.

The former head of State has called the decision a “total injustice” and an act of “political persecution,” claiming that a “mafia pact” is taking over Peruvian state institutions.

“What they have done to me is a total abuse of my rights; I will continue to fight and defend myself,” he said in a video posted on his TikTok account and urged the international community and his fellow citizens to “fight to save Peruvian democracy.”

With this decision, Vizcarra became the fourth former Peruvian president to be imprisoned for corruption, joining Alejandro Toledo, Ollanta Humala, and Pedro Castillo. A fifth, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, is also under investigation and banned from leaving the country.