Former Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra began serving a 14-year prison term Wednesday at Lima’s Barbadillo facility, following a court conviction for corruption during his tenure as regional governor.
The verdict, announced Tuesday, determined that Vizcarra accepted over $600,000 in bribes while heading the Moquegua region from 2011 to 2014. In exchange, he ensured that specific companies won public works contracts.
“The evidence shows that Martín Vizcarra misused his authority as governor, conditioning the bidding process to award contracts in return for payments,” the presiding judge declared.
Alongside the prison sentence, the 62-year-old must pay a fine of $28,052 and jointly compensate $690,511 with other convicted parties. A nine-year ban from holding public office was also imposed.
Vizcarra responded defiantly on social media, stating, “This is not justice, it is revenge. But they will not break me.”
He had been briefly detained in August under a five-month pretrial order related to the same allegations but was freed weeks later when an appeals court invalidated that ruling.
Vizcarra led Peru from March 2018 until his impeachment in November 2020. He now joins three other former presidents incarcerated at Barbadillo, including Alejandro Toledo, who received an additional 13-year sentence in October for money laundering, and Ollanta Humala, sentenced in April to 15 years for accepting bribes to fund his presidential campaigns.