Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for his involvement in the Odebrecht corruption scandal, where he was found guilty of accepting $35 million in bribes from the Brazilian construction firm. Toledo is the latest Latin American leader to face jail time in connection with this scandal, joining a list of officials in countries such as Peru, Panama, and Ecuador.
Toledo, who served as president from 2001 to 2006, received one of the harshest sentences yet in relation to Odebrecht’s bribery practices that spanned the continent. Despite consistently denying charges of money laundering and collusion, he was extradited back to Peru in 2022 after being arrested in the United States in 2019.
The Odebrecht scandal has reverberated throughout Latin America, with officials from various countries facing legal consequences for their involvement with the construction company. In Peru alone, 14 top lawyers were jailed in 2019 for allegedly providing preferential treatment to Odebrecht in public works contracts.
Toledo will serve his sentence in a specially constructed prison near Lima, designed to house former presidents. He may soon be joined by other ex-presidents, as Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Ollanta Humala, and even former President Pedro Castillo are also under investigation for their ties to Odebrecht. The company has since changed its name to Novonor in an attempt to distance itself from its tainted reputation.
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