The spicy column of Vargas Llosa reminding Alan García | Chronic

The former president of Peru Alan García, who committed suicide to avoid being arrested and accused of acts of corruption, was very critical of the Nobel Prize for Literature and former presidential candidate, Mario Vargas Llosa, in a sharp column published by various media in the world.

"I met him during the 1985 election campaign, Manuel Checa Solari, a mutual friend who had insisted on presenting us (…) He was smart and kind, but something in him alarmed me and the next day I went on TV to say that I would not vote for him but for Luis Bedoya Reyes. He was not naughty because, elected president, he offered me the embbady in Spain, which I did not accept. "

Thus begins the section of the award-winning Peruvian writer who, in 1990, faced the presidential elections and lost them before him. Alberto Fujimori, published this Sunday in various media.

Vargas Llosa points out that the first government of García (1985-1990) "It was an economic disaster and inflation reached seven thousand percent"; his second time in government, "It was much better than the first, although, unfortunately, it suffered from corruption, particularly related to the Brazilian company Odebrecht which won tender calls for important public works corrupting of senior officials."

The author acknowledges that he followed "Very closely all his political career and the notoriety that he has had during the last 30 years of public life in Peru", with which he could see that Alan García "I was smarter than the average of those in my country who are engaged in politics, with a lot of reading and an extraordinary speaker."

However, he arrives at a critical conclusion: "He was an honest politician, comparable to a José Luis Bustamante and Rivero or one Fernando Belaúnde Terry, two presidents who left the government palace poorer than they did not enter? I sincerely believe that I do not ".

"I say it sadly because even though we were adversaries, there was no doubt that he had exceptional traits in him, such as his charisma and his fireproof energy"he says

"But I fear," says Vargas Llosa, "to have participated in this lack of scruples, this tolerance for the abuses and excesses so widespread among Latin American political leaders who come to power and feel entitled to to dispose of public goods, if they belonged to him, or, what is much worse, to do private business even if they break the laws and betray the trust accorded to them by the electors ".

The novelist speculates that "The gun shot with which Alan García bumped his brain could mean that he felt unjustly besieged by justice, but also that he wanted that rumble and that blood versed to correct a past that tormented him and come back to account for it. "

"The indications are also extremely worrying: the accounts opened in Andorra by his closest aides, the millions of dollars donated by Odebrecht to the secretary-general of the presidency, currently detained, and another close friend, his living standards so much higher who declared, by taking an oath on their property, to accede to the first Presidency: "My heritage is this watch" "adds Vargas Llosa.

Regarding the political scene of his country, the liberal writer wonders: "Is not it really scandalous, a shame without excuses, for the last five presidents of Peru to be investigated for alleged robberies, bribes and bargains, committed in the exercise of their mandate? ? "

"This tradition comes from afar and is one of the biggest obstacles to democracy in Latin America and Americans in America believe that the institutions are there to serve them and not for the high officials to fill the pockets by looting them ", condemned.