Alejandro Toledo announces that he will be brought to the US: “I will do it, I respect the judge’s decision.”

Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo demanded that Peruvian justice prevent him from “dying in prison” during an interview with the EFE news agency hours before surrendering to US authorities as a step before extradition.

“I ask Peruvian justice not to kill me in prison, let me fight the arguments,” said the former president, who is under investigation for allegedly negotiating more than $30 million in bribes from Brazilian construction companies. when he was President of the Republic. between 2001 and 2006.

From my apartment in Menlo Park, on the San Francisco Bay Toledo settled any doubts about his delivery scheduled for this Friday morning, April 21, in a court in San Jose (California): “I will do it, I respect the decision of the judge (Thomas S. Hickson), although not share” .

These statements Toledo They come after a Colombian court this Thursday rejected an emergency motion submitted by the former president’s defense to once again stay the extradition process against him.

These are the last hours Toledo under house arrest, a condition he has enjoyed since 2020 after a year in a California prison, due to the dangers the COVID-19 health crisis could bring to his health condition.

“My health is very poor,” Toledo says.

It was this, his state of health, that was the argument that he repeatedly used to paralyze the lawsuit, for which he is accused of embezzling up to $ 35 million in bribes.

“My health is very poor. I take 14 tablets a day, I have hypertension and I suffer from remnants of cancer (…). Just respect it, they haven’t tried anything and they want to put me in jail,” Toledo said under the pressure of the gaze of the former first lady of Peru, Elian Carp.

Toledo: “I’ve never scammed a dollar”

The achievement of being the first indigenous president in the region is still a source of pride for the politician commonly known as “El Cholo”, who assured that “this” is not forgiven because it means “Fuhimori’s release”. dictatorship” (1990-2000) in Peru and because it “set a precedent” for Pedro Castillo, who arrived later.

“Although I have nothing to do with him,” the former president stressed, speaking of Castillo, imprisoned since December after a failed coup attempt.

Despite a string of accusations he still faces, Toledo has confirmed that he hates corruption and stressed that he has “never” received “not a single ill-gotten dollar”.

“Me, who has been working to earn it since the age of five?” chuckled the former president, who has been linked to accepting bribes that he later invested in various properties in Peru.

Question of the agreement between the prosecutor’s office and Odebrecht

Toledo expressed anger at the so-called “Effective Cooperation Agreement”, under which a group of Peruvian prosecutors specialized in Lava Jato negotiated a series of reparations with Odebrecht for benefiting from public money from the Andean country.

“Why are we not being told the terms of this agreement? Odebrecht continues in this vein in Peru, although under a different name; she avoided paying a billion dollars and another six hundred in taxes,” Toledo said aloud. .

Peru returned to “dictatorship”

The former president argued that Peru had returned to a “dictatorship” because the country was controlled by people connected to Alberto Fujimori himself and who had true power because they “have connections with large companies and the drug trade.”

“Narco has never been as free as it is now. Living in Peru today is worth nothing,” Toledo said, stressing that in this context he is “afraid” of the Peruvian prison system.

According to the former president, the situation in prisons is “worse than in regimes such as China, Iran or Sudan” because prisoners suffer serious human rights violations.

Trying to avoid a Peruvian prison, the Andean politician called on his country’s authorities to reconsider, because escaping, taking advantage of his position under house arrest, never crosses his mind.

“I am not a fugitive like Fujimori. I moved to a place (San Francisco Bay) where I was trained (…). I wouldn’t run away now, it would be an admission of my guilt, ”Toledo concluded a few hours before the start. “a match that doesn’t start from zero to zero”, but which he says will fight “until the end”. (EFE)