Peru's Former President Alan Garcia Takes His Own Life before Being Arrested on Corruption Claims

Alan Garcia, who served as President of Peru from 1985 to 1990 and again from 2006 to 2011, shot himself in the head early Wednesday when authorities were preparing to arrest him on corruption charges.

Interior Minister Carlos Moran revealed that police arrived at Garcia’s home at 6:30 a.m. local time to arrest him. However, the man asked the authorities to call his attorney and got into his bedroom.

Once there, police heard a gunshot. When agents forced their way into the bedroom, they found Garcia in a sitting position with a wound to the head.

Alan Garcia and Yukio Hatoyama at Hatoyama's official residence on November 10, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan | Source: Getty Images

The injury caused severe damage, reported the Ministry of Health, as the former president had an entry and exit wound. Garcia survived, though, and was taken to the Casimiro Ulloa hospital in Peru’s capital, Lima, as soon as possible.

Initial reports claimed that he was in critical condition and underwent surgery, but doctors couldn’t do much to save him. He was 69. Erasmo Reyna, Garcia’s lawyer, admitted that “the former president made the decision to shoot himself.”

Alan Garcia and Pope Benedict XVI at his private library on November 30, 2009 in Vatican City, Vatican | Source: Getty Images

Garcia was in the middle of the massive corruption scandal in which many more Latin American leaders have been involved with the Brazil-based company, Odebrecht.

Odebrecht is one of the firms that paid bribes to politicians and officials in exchange for contracts with the state oil giant Petrobras. The company is accused of doling out about $800 million between 2001 and 2016.

Garcia’s latest tweet, shared one day before killing himself, pointed out that there was “no shred of evidence” against him and accused Peruvian prosecutors of speculation, adding that he had “never sold out and that is proven.”

However, his actions were contradictory as he requested asylum at the Uruguayan embassy after as he was banned from leaving Peru for 18 months amidst the investigation. The government of Uruguay denied the request in December 2018, though.

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