US Embassy investigation uncovered large money transfers from Venezuela to wife of Ollanta Humala - Wikileaks

Thu, 05/19/2011 - 09:51 — AmericasForum.com

 
Nadine Heredia whispers into the ear of her husband, presidential candidate Ollanta Humala.

LIMA - According to Peruvian daily El Comercio, a document released by Wikileaks shows that Nadine Heredia, the wife of far-left presidential candidate Ollanta Humala, not only received $4000 US dollars a month from Hugo Chavez for work as a “social communicator” for a publication for which she wrote no articles, she also received US$213,000 into her bank account between 2006 and 2009.

According to the investigation, the “go-betweens” for Heredia and the Chavez regime were two left-wing NGOs, PRODIN (Promoción de la Identidad y Desarrollo Nacional del Perú, and the CEPS Foundation, a socialist think tank in Spain that was behind the drafting of the “socialist constitutions” of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and others.

According to the investigation by the embassy, the money sent to the presidential candidate’s wife from Venezuela was to be used for “social projects and propaganda.”

UPDATE: This afternoon, Ollanta Humala spoke at the University of San Marcos, where he gave a "Pledge for Democracy in Peru," in which he declared that he would not serve longer than 5 years (the constitutional presidential term limit) if elected president of the country. It was not reported whether Humala was asked if the pledge included a prohibition that his wife, mentioned above, would run after his term ended.

This has been a recent phenomenon in recent years where presidential spouses have run to succeed their husbands, in order to maintain power. Guatemala's first lady, Sandra Torres de Colom, is the latest example, "divorcing" her husband just 5 months prior to Guatemala's presidential election in what most consider a cynical bid to maintain her husband's power. When questioned, Colom told the press that she was doing it because of her and her husband's "immense love for Guatemala." 

Nadine Heredia, considered by many to be even more radical than her left-wing husband, could potentially run for president after his term was up, allowing Ollanta to skip one term and run again five years later - extending the Humala term to a dynastic fifteen year presidency similar to that of Hugo Chavez.