Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo surrenders to the US justice to be extradited

Archive photo of former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, in Washington DC.MANDEL NGAN (AFP)

Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo turned himself in this Friday morning to the United States authorities.

The president, who governed the South American nation between 2001 and 2006, tried by various means to stop his extradition to the country, which is demanding him to try him for a case of million-dollar bribes that he allegedly received from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

On Wednesday, a federal judge denied his request to stay on US soil and ordered him to report for the service of the US Marshal, a federal agency that specializes in tracking fugitives from justice.

Toledo arrived at a court in the city of San José, in the north of the state, around 09:00 in the morning.

He did it in the company of his wife, former first lady Eliane Karp.

He will be in a cell in San Mateo County until the green light is given for his extradition, something that could happen in the next few hours.

The politician had an arrest warrant against him since February 2017 for having received 35 million dollars.

He fled Peru after refusing to serve 18 months in pretrial detention, a punishment imposed by two Peruvian magistrates.

He was arrested in California in July 2019. He was first sent to the Santa Rita jail, 60 kilometers east of San Francisco, but the pandemic forced authorities to reconsider the isolation of the 77-year-old politician.

This Thursday, Toledo sent a message to the authorities of his country, who have criminally prosecuted four former presidents for the scandalous corruption plot left behind by Odebrecht and which was revealed by the investigating prosecutors in the Lava Jato case.

"I ask the Peruvian justice not to kill me in jail, let me fight with arguments," the former leader of Perú Posible told Guillermo Azábal, from the EFE news agency.

“I have never received a single ill-gotten dollar,” he added.

In the conversation, the former president spoke of his deteriorating state of health.

He says he suffers from hypertension and ailments related to a supposed cancer.

His sufferings were used by his lawyer, Mara Goldman, as one of the main reasons for delaying the delivery to Peruvian justice.

"My health is very bad (...) Just respect that, they haven't tried it and they already want to put me in jail," Toledo told the Spanish agency.

The big question was whether the politician, who lived on the edge of life, was going to finally appear in court.

"Is it time for Cabana?", the journalists in Peru asked themselves when the time for the handover arrived and nothing was known about the president who took over from Alberto Fujimori.

Toledo used to be late for his protocol appointments when he was president.

The press baptized his lateness as the "Cabana hour", in reference to the town where he was born, in the Ancash region.

Toledo carried an electronic shackle on one of his heels, making it very difficult for him to continue evading authorities.

Members of the press await Toeldo's arrival at the Robert F. Peckham building courthouse in San José, California (USA). Carlos Rosillo

An hour later, the truth came out.

Toledo appeared at another location of the San José Court to avoid the press and not be caught in his darkest moment.

It has been the last move of a politician who filed several legal tricks to delay this day.

By April 7, Judge Thomas S. Hixson, of the Northern District Court of California, ordered his confinement, but the former president filed a last-minute appeal for reconsideration and again bought time.

This was followed by motions before courts in Washington DC, but a judge in the capital rejected it last Thursday.

Toledo will finally have to face the justice of his country.

Peruvian politics have been eroded by the Lava Jato scandal, which led to corruption investigations of all politicians who have held the presidential seat since 2001. Ollanta Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, were accused of receiving bribes.

Alan García committed suicide to avoid prosecution for money laundering, collusion and influence peddling.

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was also in house arrest due to his links with the Brazilian construction company.

The former presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori and the former mayoress of Lima, Susana Villarán, were also associated with the corrupting power of Marcelo Odebrecht's company.

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