LIMA, Peru _ Former Peruvian President Alan Garcia has died after shooting himself as police waited Wednesday to arrest him over corruption allegations.
Garcia, who served two terms as Peru's president, from 1985 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2011, shot himself in his bedroom at his home in Lima, the capital, as police waited outside his door to take him to jail. He was immediately taken to a hospital for emergency surgery.
Prosecutors had ordered Garcia's arrest over allegations that he was involved in what is known as the Car Wash scandal, a sweeping corruption web that has ensnared officials in several Latin American countries and roiled Peru for years.
Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra tweeted: "Dismayed over the death of ex-President Alan Garcia. I send my condolences to his family and loved ones."
At the center of the controversies is the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, whose officials have admitted paying tens of millions in bribes to high-ranking government officials to secure lucrative public works contracts across the continent. The scandal has led to the arrest or extradition requests for three other former Peruvian presidents.
The order to arrest Garcia came from Jose Domingo Perez, a special prosecutor in charge of Odebrecht investigations. He said money from the construction firm illegally helped finance Garcia's 2006 election campaign.
Perez was also investigating a bank account in Andorra believed to be controlled by Garcia that contained $1.3 million in funds from Odebrecht.
Interior Minister Carlos Moran told reporters that Garcia met officers who appeared at his doorstep early Wednesday morning to take him into custody. But he refused to go, and turned and walked upstairs to his bedroom.
Sources close to Garcia criticized the prosecutor's arrest order. Garcia's personal secretary, Ricardo Pinedo, said his boss understood that the police were coming Wednesday morning to search the ex-president's house, not to arrest him.
Garcia's attorney, Erasmo Reyna, confirmed that Garcia's shooting was a suicide, telling reporters that the arrest order was "arbitrary. ... These acts of injustice must stop now. People should know that this can happen (as a result of) arbitrary acts such as these."
Word of Garcia's suicide comes less than a week after the arrest of former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail over allegations that a consulting firm he co-owned accepted nearly $1 million in payments from Odebrecht while Kuczynski served as a Cabinet minister under then-President Alejandro Toledo.
Toledo, who governed from 2000 to 2006, is also wanted on charges that he received $20 million from the disgraced Brazilian firm. The ex-president is fighting extradition from the United States, where he holds citizenship.
The other former Peruvian president implicated in the Odebrecht scandal is Ollanta Humala, who is under house arrest with his wife over allegations that he accepted $3 million in bribes during his term from 2011 to 2016.
Garcia's two terms in office were dogged by controversy and corruption allegations.
Upon completion of his first term in 1990, the Peruvian economy was a shambles, suffering from hyperinflation and a raging war that pitted government troops against terrorist groups, notably the leftist Shining Path.
That insurgency was brought to heel by Garcia's successor Alberto Fujimori, who is now in prison after being convicted of crimes against humanity over actions taken during his presidency.
Keiko Fujimori, the ex-leader's daughter and a former presidential candidate, also sent condolences to Garcia's family via Twitter. "I will pray for him and his loved ones," Fujimori wrote. The younger Fujimori is herself is in prison on corruption charges stemming from more than $1 million in funds prosecutors allege her campaign received from Odebrecht.
Garcia was able to remake his public image as a fiscal conservative in the 2006 election, when he positioned himself as the preferable alternative to his opposing candidate, the radical socialist Humala.
Garcia appeared to distinguish himself in the latter term with several important highways and other public works, although the luster dimmed as it became known that many of the projects were awarded to Odebrecht.
