LIMA/BRASILIA: Heredia, the wife of former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, arrived in Brazil on Wednesday as the ex-leader spent the night in jail following a 15-year sentence for money laundering.
Heredia, 48, landed in Brazil's capital after requesting asylum, Brazil's Foreign Ministry said. She was slapped with a 15-year sentence of her own on Tuesday in the same case as her husband.
The two were convicted of receiving funds from Brazilian builder Odebrecht, now known as Novonor, in a sweeping graft case in which the construction firm doled out bribes to politicians across Latin America.
Humala spent his first night imprisoned in the same jail where two other one-time Peruvian heads of state, Alejandro Toledo and Pedro Castillo, are also being held. The unit was built particularly to hold former leaders.
Heredia and the youngest of her three children took off for Brasilia at around 4 a.m. in a plane sent by the government of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, lawyer Julio Espinoza told local radio RPP.
She is set to head to Sao Paulo later in the day, where she will stay for cancer treatment, her lawyer in Brazil, Marco Aurelio de Carvalho, told Reuters. He did not give more detail.
Peru's government granted Heredia and her son safe passage to travel to Brazil after conversations between the two governments, Peru's Foreign Ministry said.
Humala, a retired military officer who led the Andean nation from 2011 to 2016, is Peru's second former president to be jailed in the Odebrecht case and the fourth to be implicated in the scandal. His defense plans to appeal the conviction.
Former Odebrecht executives have said in Peruvian court that the firm had bankrolled almost every presidential candidate in the country for a nearly 30-year period.
'ROOM FOR ONE MORE'
Humala has already been assigned a cell at Peru's police prison for ex-presidents, Javier Llaque, the head of the nation's penitentiary system, told journalists.
Beyond the three currently held there, former president Alberto Fujimori was also imprisoned at the site until his release in 2023, before his death last year.
The number could rise even further. Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who served from 2016 to 2018, and Martin Vizcarra, who served between 2018 and 2020, are also under investigation for corruption.
Current President Dina Boluarte, whose term comes up next year, faces investigations for illicit enrichment for wearing flashy Rolex watches, abandoning her post during a rhinoplasty and for the death of dozens of anti-government protesters after she took office.
“There’s always room for one more inmate,“ Llaque said.
