LIMA, Peru — A former president of Peru died on Wednesday after shooting himself in the head when the authorities tried to arrest him in connection with one of the biggest corruption scandals in Latin American history. A personal secretary for the former president, Alan García, 69, confirmed his death. The charges relate to Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction giant, which last year admitted to $800 million in payoffs in exchange for lucrative contracts for projects including roads, dams and bridges. The company was a main builder across Latin America, where it profited from a commodities boom that lead to an explosion in infrastructure construction in the early the 2000s. In Peru, Odebrecht built an electric train in Lima, the capital, and a $4.5 billion road that connected the Pacific Ocean to the Amazon Basin.

Source: New York Times April 17, 2019 15:24 UTC