Peru's Congress has opened a high-profile investigation into a contract with Israeli security firm Global CST [8], entered into by the previous government of Álan García [9], after an audit by the Comptroller General of the Republic [10] found irregularities in the deal. The probe concluded that the Peruvian state had lost $16 million when the firm failed to fulfil terms of its contract with the Armed Forces Joint Command [11]. A congressional oversight commission has questioned three former cabinet members in the scandal—ex-housing minister Hernán Garrido, and ex-defense ministers Ántero Flores Aráoz [12] and Rafael Rey [13]—as well as ex-Joint Command chief Gen. Francisco Contreras [8]. Special anti-corruption prosecutor Julio Arbizu has called on García himself to testify before what is being called the Mega-Commission, and for the attorney general's office, or Fiscalía [14], to investigate the former president.
Global CST, whose founder and director is IDF reserve Gen. Israel Ziv [15], was secretly contracted in 2009 to help Peru's military fight remnant Sendero Luminoso rebels in the Apurímac-Ene River Valley (VRAE). Testimony and documents confirm that Rey exchanged communication directly with Israel's then-foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman [16] over the deal, and called upon him to pressure CST's competitor Armaz [17] to drop out of the bidding process. According to testimony, Garrido also helped Global CST arrange a similar deal with the government of Colombia [18] before recommending the firm to Peru's own armed forces.
Also named is ex-admiral Carlos Tubino [19], now a lawmaker for the Fuerza Popular [20] party, headed by Keiko Fujimori [21], daughter of imprisoned ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori. Both Fujimoristas and supporters of García's APRA [22] charge that the investigation is politically motivated. (IPS [23], La Primera [24], March 22; Perú21 [25], March 15; Perú21 [26], March 8)
Controversy also surrounds contracts with the Israel Corporation [27], which has bought into Peru's energy sector [28].
