Ex-Argentine president Fernando de la Rua on trial for $5M bribe
Source: Associated Press
August 14, 2012 5:57 PM PrintText
Ex-Argentine president Fernando de la Rua on trial for $5M bribe
(AP) BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Argentine prosecutors put a former president on trial for bribery on Tuesday, accusing Fernando de la Rua of bribing senators for votes.
A three-judge panel already has ruled that $5 million was paid to a group of senators in exchange for their votes to remove worker protections in the year 2000, when the International Monetary Fund was making workforce flexibility a requirement for extending loans to Argentina. The law, which enabled companies to fire workers without cause or severance pay, was overturned in 2004.
Now prosecutors must prove the payments were ordered by De la Rua, who served from 1999 to December 2001, when the IMF refused to extend more loans and the economy collapsed. Deadly riots followed, forcing de la Rua to flee by helicopter from the rooftop of the presidential palace.
De la Rua's co-defendants include his liaison to Congress, former parliament secretary Mario Pontaquarto, who confessed a decade ago to delivering the money on the orders of De la Rua himself.
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57493252/ex-argentine-president-fernando-de-la-rua-on-trial-for-$5m-bribe/