Former Peruvian president dies after shooting himself during arrest

LIMA, Peru — A former president of Peru died Wednesday after shooting himself in the head when authorities tried to arrest him on corruption charges.

A personal secretary for the ex-president, Alan Garcia, 69, confirmed his death.

Garcia had undergone surgery at a Lima hospital, Health Ministry officials said. A doctor interviewed at the hospital said the former leader had suffered three heart attacks.

Garcia’s personal secretary, Ricardo Pineda, told a Peruvian radio station that as authorities arrived at the former president’s home with an arrest warrant, he locked himself into his bedroom, shot himself and was rushed to a hospital shock unit.

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. That revelation set off a flurry of investigations by prosecutors and lawmakers, principally in Latin America.

The investigations have targeted several of Peru’s former presidents.

Last week, prosecutors detained Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, the predecessor to the country’s current president, in an investigation related to the case. They have asked that he be held up to three years as they gather evidence.

Alejandro Toledo, who was president in the early 2000s and lives in Los Altos, is wanted for extradition from the U.S.; Ollanta Humala, Garcia’s successor, was detained as well, before being released.

Garcia served as president from 1985 to 1990, and then another term from 2006 to 2011, presiding over an economic collapse in his first term and an expansion in his second.

After authorities issued a travel ban for Garcia, he fled to the Uruguayan Embassy in Lima to request asylum. Uruguay rejected the request.

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