Alan Garcia, the former president of Peru, is in “very critical” condition and reportedly in a coma after shooting himself in the neck on Wednesday, April 17. According to a report from Reuters, Garcia shot himself before being arrested in connection with a bribery investigation.
Garcia was arrested in his home in Lima, Peru, the nation’s capital.
“The former president made the decision to shoot himself,” his lawyer Erasmo Reyna said in a statement, via CNN.com.
From the report:
Garcia was under investigation in connection with Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which triggered Latin America’s biggest graft scandal when it admitted publicly in 2016 that it won lucrative contracts in the region with bribes. Last year, Garcia asked Uruguay for political asylum after he was banned from leaving the country to keep him from fleeing or obstructing the investigation. Uruguay rejected the request.
Garcia, who is part of a bribery scandal that involves political leaders from Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, and Mozambique, served as president of the country from 1985 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2011.
Brazil-based company Odebrecht is accused of spending $800 million in bribes to Latin American governments in order to obtain contracts to build roads, bridges, damns, and highways.
Former Peruvian president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas, and former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, have all been suspended, fired, or jailed. Silva is serving a one-year jail sentence for corruption and money laundering, while Glas was jailed for six years after accepting $13.5 million in bribes.
Kuczynski was impeached after the allegations.