The Uruguayan government has denied an asylum request from former Peru president Alan García.
Uruguay’s commander-in-chief Tabaré Vázquez announced the decision Monday morning to not grant asylum status to García, who had been living at the residence of the Peruvian ambassador to Uruguay since Nov. 17.
“We are not conceding political asylum to Alan García because in Peru there are three branches of government that function autonomously and freely,” President Vázquez said in his official announcement. “And it is the Judicial Branch that is carrying out these investigations of possible economic crimes. Because of these considerations, strictly legal and judicial, we have denied political asylum.”
Peruvian authorities are investigating García for possibly accepting Odebrecht bribes during his presidency from 2006 to 2011. García is one of four former presidents who has been implicated in the widescale Odebrecht corruption case. It also recently took down Popular Force party leader Keiko Fujimori, who will spend the next three years in preventive prison.
César Villanueva, the president of the minister’s offices, said on the heels of the decision that Uruguay has confirmed the government’s stance that the case against García is not political persecution.
“The decision has shown that, in the case of Peru, there is a democratic government that respects institutionality,” he told Peru’s Canal N news channel. “That confirms clearly to us what we’ve said about there being no political persecution.”
