PERU: Judge Orders Arrest Of Peru Former President Ollanta Humala And Wife Over Alleged Corruption

A Peruvian judge has ordered ex-president Ollanta Humala and his wife Nadine Heredia held in pre-trial detention for allegedly accepting illegal campaign donations from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

Humala and Heredia, who followed the televised 21-hour marathon hearing from home, surrendered to the judge on Thursday one hour after the ruling.

Judge Richard Concepcion Carhuancho ordered 18 months of pre-trial detention for the couple for the crime of money laundering against the interest of the state.

Humala, president 2011-2016, said the ruling is a confirmation of abuse of power, vowing on Twitter to face it head-on in defence of our rights.

Defense attorneys said the couple would immediatly file an appeal.

Grupo Odebrecht, Latin America's largest construction conglomerate, came under scrutiny during the probe of a massive pay-to-play scheme at Brazil's state oil company Petrobras that has tarnished the names of Brazil's top politicians and business executives.

The fallout spread across Latin America when Odebrecht executives admitted in plea bargains that a secret company bribery department systematically paid multi-million-dollar bribes to win public works contracts in 12 countries in the region.

The Brazilian construction giant admitted to paying $29 million in bribes in Peru to win government building contracts between 2005 and 2014 a time period that also includes the presidencies of Alejandro Toledo and Alan Garcia.

Toledo president from 2001-2006 is currently in the United States in defiance of an 18-month pre-trial detention order for allegedly receiving $20 million in Odebrecht bribes.

One of the main prosecution claims is that Humala and Heredia accepted $3 million from Odebrecht for the 2011 presidential campaign.

Humala denies the charge, though he says that Peruvian law does not forbid foreign campaign contributions.

The prosecution also claims that Humala accepted contributions from Venezuela during his failed 2006 presidential bid.



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BRAZIL: Brazil Tourism Minister Henrique Alves Resigns

Brazil's tourism minister has resigned, less than two months before the country hosts the Olympics.

With the resignation of Henrique Alves on Thursday, the government of interim President Michel Temer has lost its third minister in a month to a probe of state oil company Petrobras.

The resignation followed an investigation into alleged bribery on the part of Transpetro, a Petrobras subsidiary.

A day earlier, Sergio Machado, previously a Petrobras executive and a former senator from Temer’s party, alleged in a plea bargain testimony that Alves received more than $400,000 in bribes.

Denying the accusation, Alves announced on Twitter that the contributions were made to his campaigns through official channels and were declared to election authorities.

In his letter of resignation, Alves said:, "I don't want to create awkwardness or any kind of difficulty for the government."

Alves' resignation, so close to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, adds to the upheaval at the tourism ministry due to the constant change of ministers and secretaries that was caused by Brazil's political crisis.

Machado's testimony also linked Temer to campaign funds sought from corruption schemes at Petrobas.

Temer said it was "irresponsible, ridiculous, mendacious and criminal" to suggest, as Machado did, that he had sought campaign funds for his party from the corruption scheme, the first direct link implicating Temer in the scandal.

"We will not tolerate affirmations of that nature," Temer said in a hastily scheduled public address.

"A foolish suggestion like that can confound the government's work. But I want to affirm that nothing will hinder our desire, mission and aim of doing what the president must do right now."

A fiscal reform that proposed a 20-year constitutional cap on public spending was revealed on the same day, but the plea bargain testimony with its bribery allegations was the main headline in Thursday’s newspapers.

The accusations provide more fodder for suspended President Dilma Rousseff and her allies, who accuse Temer and his party of mounting the impeachment process against her in order to distract from their own roles in the corruption scandal.

Rousseff faces a trial in the Senate on unrelated charges of breaking budget rules.

If she is convicted in mid-August, as many analysts still expect, Rousseff will be permanently removed from office and Temer would serve out her mandate until the 2018 elections.