'I leave my enemies my cadaver as a sign of my contempt for them': Shocking video captures ex-Peruvian president clutching a gun before he blew his brains out in front of cops, as daughter reveals details of his suicide note
- Former Peruvian president Alan García shot himself dead at home last Thursday
- A cellphone video acquired by America TV showed the defiant ex-leader talking to a prosecutor before he pulled out a gun from his right side
- The 69-year-old then walked up the stairs and held the gun by his side before he locked himself in a room and pulled the trigger
- His alleged suicide note called out the justice system: 'I have seen others paraded around in handcuffs, living a miserable existence'
- García was fighting allegations that he accepted payment from Brazilian construction giant, Odebrecht, during his last term in office
- Peruvian prosecutors investigating the Brazilian builder said they had gathered enough evidence to hold García in pre-trial detention
- The embattled former leader was Peru's president from 1985 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2011
Startling new footage of former Peruvian president Alan García shows how he brandished a handgun in front of police moments before he fatally shot himself in the head amid a slew of corruption allegations.
The cellphone video, obtained America TV's news magazine show, Cuarto Poder, showed a defiant García talking to district attorney, Henry Amenábar, while he leaned over a set of stairs.
The late ex-president then pulled the gun out from his right side and proceeded to walk up the stairs to his room where he fatally shot himself in the head.
Peru's ex-president Alan García (center) is pictured on a cellphone video having a conversation by district attorney, Henry Amenábar (bottom right), minutes before he shot himself in the head
Cellphone video obtained by Peruvian station America TV shows ex-president Alan García holding a gun as he walked to a room in his residence before he pulled the trigger
Former Peruvian president Alan García appeared in a cellphone clutching on to a gun before he killed himself when agents showed up to serve an arrest warrant last Thursday. The embattled leader also left an alleged suicide note in which he called out his opponents who wanted to see him in jail for his reported participation in a corruption scandal involving a Brazilian construction company
García had been fighting allegations that he accepted unlawful payments from Brazilian construction giant, Odebrecht, during his last term in office
Peruvian prosecutors investigating the Brazilian builder said they had gathered enough evidence to hold García in pre-trial detention
The embattled 69-year-old ex-leader drafted a suicide note before he took his life at his residence in Miraflores, an upscale district in the Peruvian capital of Lima.
Family members read the alleged letter during his funeral service last Friday before he was laid to rest.
One of García's daughters read the apparent suicide note at a wake held by his APRA political party, which twice helped usher García to the presidency.
'I will not be humiliated,' read Luciana García, citing a note left by her father before his suicide.
'I have seen others paraded around in handcuffs, living a miserable existence, but Alan García has no need to suffer these injustices.'
'For this reason, I leave to my children the dignity of my decisions; to my friends, my pride, and to my enemies, my cadaver as a sign of my contempt for them.'
The note highlighted a rift between the former leader and the Peruvian government over his reported involvement in the investigation of Brazilian construction giant, Odebrecht.
Nearly 1,000 supporters crammed into the APRA party's Lima headquarters last Thursday to pay respects to former president Alan García
The son of late ex-president Alan García, Federico Danton García (second from left) and Roxanne Cheesman, his partner, weep during a ceremony
Dramatic X-ray images appear to show García's skull hours before he died in hospital last Thursday
Odebrecht allegedly paid off politicians and government officials in exchange for infrastructure contracts in a host of Latin American countries, including Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, among many others.
García governed for two presidential terms, from 1985 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2011.
However, it was during his last stint as the commander-in-chief that García allegedly became embroiled in the scandal which forced the construction company to come to terms with authorities in the United States and Switzerland and pay $2.6billion in fines.
García, for his part, was accused of accepting bribe payments of almost $100,000 for deals that favored Odebrecht.
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Cellphone still image shows Alan García being rushed into a hospital in Peru
Peruvian prosecutors investigating the Brazilian builder said they had gathered sufficient evidence to hold García in pre-trial detention while they prepared charges against him.
García firmly expressed his innocence until the end, calling the probe politically motivated.
'In this time of rumors and hatred, believed by the majority...I have seen how these procedures are used to humiliate and not to seek the truth,' García wrote in the letter read before thousands of his friends and allies at the wake.
President Martín Vizcarra, whose administration has overseen the probe, had offered García's family a state funeral with honors, typical of that received by former presidents.
The García family declined Vizcarra's offer, preferring instead a private event with the ex-president´s friends and allies.
García's suicide is likely to drive a wedge between Vizcarra's government and the right-leaning opposition in Peru' Congress, many of whom were allied with the ex-president.
