São Paulo (AP) – Peru’s former first lady Nadine Heredia and her young son traveled to Brazil on Wednesday after neighboring countries granted her shelter, her lawyer and foreign ministries said.
Heredia’s lawyer Julio Espinoza told Peruvian Radio RPP that she took an official plane provided by the Brazilian government earlier Wednesday. A spokesman for the Brazilian Foreign Ministry confirmed the flight was on its way to Brazil, but did not provide further details.
On Tuesday, a Peruvian court sentenced former President Ollanta Humala and his wife to 15 years in prison for money laundering funds received from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to fund his 2006 and 2011 campaigns.
Humala, who attended the court meeting, was immediately sentenced to jail, while Heredia, 48, and her son Samin Humala, 14.
Brazil granted diplomatic asylum to the former First Lady and her son under a 1954 convention, both signatories, both countries, the Peruvian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday night. The ministry said Peruvian authorities granted them safe access to Brazil.
The Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to the Associated Press request for comment.
Ilán Heredia, the brother of the former first lady, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for money laundering in the same situation.
The judges of the Peruvian National High Court held that Humala and Heredia had made illegal contributions to the political movements of Odebrecht and then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013).
Humala, a 62-year-old retired military officer, came to power in 2011 after defeating right-wing politician Keiko Fujimori in the second round.
The trial began in 2022 with the court convicted along with Humala and his 48-year-old wife. Humala and Heredia both prevented their flights in pretrial detention centers from 2017 to 2018 due to prosecutors’ request.
Odebrecht, who conducted a widespread bribery recognition in Latin America in 2016, followed a preliminary investigation into Humala, which began in 2015, a year before the company’s revelation.
Most presidents who ruled Peru since 2001 face legal problems due to their ties to Odebrecht. Toledo is currently in jail, while former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has been arrested. Alan García served two non-consecutive terms (1985-1990 and 2006-2011), and died in 2019 due to suicide because authorities moved away the arrests related to Odd Brecht’s bribery.
In addition to the former president, former presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori and many former politicians are also investigating.
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Associated Press reporter Franklin Briceño contributed to Lima. Associated Press reporter Mauricio Savarese contributed reports to Sao Paulo.
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