Peru ex-president leaves cadaver as sign of 'contempt' for his enemies - suicide note

By Marco Aquino

 

Friends and family carry the coffin with the remains of Peru's former President Alan Garcia, who killed himself this week, during the last of three days of national mourning declared by President Martin Vizcarra, in Lima, Peru April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Guadalupe Pardo

 

LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian ex-president Alan Garcia wrote in an alleged suicide note read by family members at a wake on Friday that he had killed himself in order to avoid humiliation at the hands of his political enemies.

 

Garcia shot himself in the head earlier this week as police arrived at his door to arrest him in connection with alleged bribes from Brazilian builder Odebrecht, in the most dramatic turn yet in Latin America's largest graft scandal. Before his suicide, Garcia had repeatedly brushed off allegations of corruption as a political hit.

 

One of Garcia´s daughters read the apparent suicide note at a wake held by his APRA political party, which twice helped usher Garcia to the presidency.

 

Reuters was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the letter, nor the time at which it was written.

 

"I will not be humiliated," read Luciana Garcia, citing a note left by her father before his suicide. "I have seen others paraded around in handcuffs, living a miserable existence, but Alan Garcia has no need to suffer these injustices."

 

"For this reason, I leave to my children the dignity of my decisions; to my friends, my pride, and to my enemies, my cadaver as a sign of my contempt for them."

 

The note underscores the deep political rift that continues to plague the Odebrecht investigation in Peru and elsewhere in Latin America.

 

Peruvian prosecutors investigating the Brazilian builder said they had gathered sufficient evidence to hold Garcia in pre-trial detention while they prepared charges against him. Garcia maintained his innocence until the end, calling the probe politically motivated.

 

"In this time of rumors and hatred, believed by the majority...I have seen how these procedures are used to humiliate and not to seek the truth," Garcia wrote in the letter read before thousands of his friends and allies at the wake.

 

President Martin Vizcarra, whose administration has overseen the probe, had offered Garcia´s family a state funeral with honours, typical of that received by former presidents.

 

The Garcia family declined Vizcarra´s offer, preferring instead a private event with the ex-president´s friends and allies.

 

Garcia´s suicide is likely to drive a wedge between Vizcarra´s government and the right-leaning opposition in Peru´s Congress, many of whom were allied with the ex-president.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-04-20

 

 

9 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

and to my enemies, my cadaver as a sign of my contempt for them

Yea well, that'll learn them.....

The man clearly had an ego problem. RIH

At least when you're dead, you don't have to listen to <deleted> that people will say about you.

"The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones."

So the world now contains one less self serving, corrupt politician. 

 

Things are looking up...

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

I leave to my children the dignity of my decisions; to my friends, my pride, and to my enemies, my cadaver as a sign of my contempt for them."

 

Brilliant....this is a marvelous way to make a point. Hopefully other deserving political figures will be inspired to follow his example.

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 20197 yr by Hayduke

This event cadaver lasting effect on ex-politicians and statesmen around the world. 

Bernie Sanders and Alan Garcia are both socialist... Opps, Alan Garcia was a socialist. 

Going out with a flair. Or is it a flare?