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Peru, Lima: President Alejandro Toledo angrily denied reports July 26 that he had received a bribe of more than $5 million and pledged to open his bank accounts for investigators. Peru's leading news magazine, Caretas, had reported that Toledo's former adviser, Cesar Almeyda, who is awaiting trial on separate corruption charges, said in a jailhouse interview that a company paid the bribe to Toledo. Almeyda did not name the company or say where any such cash was deposited, the magazine said.

Toledo denied the accusation. "I tell you today that this president will never stop his fight against corruption," he said, adding that he was willing to show his financial records to investigators if they demand them. Toledo said his wife, Eliane Karp, was cutting short an overseas vacation with their daughter "to show we are not afraid" of the allegations of corruption. In a televised message to the nation a week ago, Toledo vigorously denied bribery and electoral fraud allegations.

Caretas did not quote Almeyda directly, but its report came after Peru's most influential newspaper, El Comercio, reported that Almeyda took a $2 million bribe from Latin America's No. 4 brewer, Bavaria, to help the company win a bidding war for Peru's only brewer, Backus & Johnston. Congress is investigating those allegations which Bavaria, a Colombian company, has denied.

The news magazine said Almeyda, who is awaiting trial on charges of trying to bribe judges in the 1990s, had spoken of a commercial operation in which a company was pressured by Toledo. "As a result, a series of deposits were made," the magazine said, adding that Almeyda "did not want to mention specific amounts but noted they were well above $5 million."

The Caretas report followed a week of allegations from witnesses that Toledo's sister, Margarita, had been involved, with the president's blessing, in running a "forgery factory" falsifying signatures to register his political party for the 2000 elections.

Toledo promised to run a clean government after the corruption-plagued administration of President Alberto Fujimori but has lost seven ministers in corruption scandals in recent months.

The corruption allegations are overshadowing Toledo's third anniversary in office on Wednesday and have pushed his approval rating to around 8 percent.

His battle against the corruption allegations came on the same day he suffered a major setback when he lost control of Congress after an opposition lawmaker was elected head of the legislature, a move analysts say could add to the campaign to oust the president.

Some analysts said the loss of congressional control could accelerate attempts by some legislators to remove the president from office on grounds he is not morally fit for office, which happened to former President Fujimori after a corruption scandal erupted in 2000.


28 July, 2004