Paraguayan Vice President Hugo Velázquez said this Friday (12) that he will resign and withdraw his candidacy for the presidency, after being placed on the US blacklist for alleged “significant” acts of corruption.
Velázquez denied the accusation but said that, to protect his party, he would present his resignation next week.
“I speak with the calm that my behavior gives me, because I didn’t do what they are accusing me of,” he told local radio Monumental. “I’m speaking with a clear conscience.”
On Friday, the US State Department accused Velázquez of involvement in significant acts of corruption.
A statement from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Valazquez’s associate Juan Carlos Duarte offered a bribe to a Paraguayan public official to “obstruct an investigation that threatened the vice president and his financial interests.”
The bribe offered was more than $1 million, US Ambassador to Paraguay Marc Ostfield said in a statement.
Responding to Friday’s news, Paraguayan President Mario Abdo told reporters:
“Given the circumstances, continuing the vice president’s candidacy was unacceptable… I say this with pain because he is a friend, a colleague”.
Valazquez’s associate Duarte told Reuters he also resigned and would cooperate with authorities, but did not comment directly on the allegations.
“It surprises me. I will make myself available to them (and) ask for the relevant information,” she said, adding that she resigned because “it is a public office and I have to honor the institutions.”
Velázquez and Duarte’s immediate family members were also included in the list in Blinken’s statement.
In July, the State Department accused former Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes of “significant corruption” and obstructing a cross-border criminal investigation. He denied the allegations at the time as “baseless and unfair”.
Source: CNN Brasil
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