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Judge Orders Detention of Former Peruvian President

by Associated Press

   LIMA, PERU --

   A Peruvian judge on Wednesday ordered the 10-day detention of former
   President Pedro Pablo Kucyznksi as part of a money laundering probe
   into his consulting work for the company at the heart of Latin
   America's biggest graft scandal.

   Special police agents were seen outside Kuczynski's neo-colonial
   mansion in Lima attempting to carry out the arrest order.

   The 80-year-old former Wall Street banker resigned last year after
   opposition lawmakers seeking his impeachment revealed that his private
   consulting firm had received some $782,000 in previously undisclosed
   payments from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht more than a decade
   ago.

   Prosecutor Jose Domingo Perez, whose anti-corruption crusade has
   rallied Peruvians accustomed to seeing their leaders go unpunished for
   financial crimes, said some of the payments were made when Kucyznski
   was serving as a Cabinet minister and overseeing Odebrecht's
   construction of a highway connecting Peru to Brazil.

   Peru has gone further than any other nation outside Brazil in
   prosecuting politicians for their ties to Odebrecht, which admitted in
   a plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to doling out almost
   $800 million in bribes for business throughout Latin America.

   All three of Kuczynski's predecessors who have governed Peru since 2001
   have also been charged or are under investigation as part of the
   ongoing probe.

   Vice President Mercedes Araoz, an ally of Kuczynski, said the arrest
   order was unnecessary because the former president had been cooperating
   with investigators.

   A judge also ordered the detention of Kuczynski's driver and a
   secretary.