83 Facts About Alejandro Toledo

Alejandro Celestino Toledo Manrique is a Peruvian politician who served as President of Peru, from 2001 to 2006.

Alejandro Toledo gained international prominence after leading the opposition against president Alberto Fujimori, who held the presidency from 1990 to 2000.

Alejandro Toledo pursued his undergraduate and graduate education at the University of San Francisco and Stanford University.

Alejandro Toledo originally joined the technical and academic field, from where he participated as an analyst on politics and economics on some occasions.

Alejandro Toledo entered politics when he founded the Possible Peru party, participating for the first time in the 1995 Peruvian general election.

Alejandro Toledo's administration was characterized by macroeconomic boom, promoting foreign investment, the signing of free trade agreements, and the implementation of various investment projects in infrastructure and human development.

Alejandro Toledo ultimately placed eighth in the 2016 Peruvian general election.

Alejandro Toledo has been a speaker at conferences in different countries on economics, social inclusion, and democracy, as well as a leader of his political party, the defunct Possible Peru.

On 16 July 2019, Alejandro Toledo was arrested in the United States for an extradition order to Peru, as reported by the Peruvian Public Ministry.

On 28 September 2021, a US District Court approved the extradition of Alejandro Toledo, ruling that evidence presented in the case against Alejandro Toledo were "sufficient to sustain the charges of collusion and money laundering" under the US Peru Extradition Treaty.

On 23 April 2023, Alejandro Toledo was extradited from the US to Peru.

Alejandro Toledo was the eighth oldest of sixteen brothers and sisters, seven of whom died in childhood.

Alejandro Toledo was born in the village of Ferrer, Bolognesi, but registered in the nearby town of Cabana, Pallasca Province, Ancash Department.

Alejandro Toledo eventually found employment as a news correspondent for La Prensa in Chimbote, where he interviewed several high-ranking politicians.

Alejandro Toledo's prospects improved when two Peace Corps volunteers, Joel Meister and Nancy Deeds, arrived in Chimbote looking for lodging and arrived at his family's door.

Alejandro Toledo was chosen to receive a one-year grant, and while in the United States, Deeds and Meister helped him get into the University of San Francisco's special program for non-English speakers.

Alejandro Toledo received a BA degree in economics and business administration at University of San Francisco by obtaining a partial scholarship and working part-time pumping gas.

From 1981 to 1983, Alejandro Toledo directed the Institute for Economic and Labor Studies in Lima, a subdivision of the Ministry of Labor and Social Development.

Alejandro Toledo has been a full time professor at ESAN Graduate School of Business, one of Peru's leading business schools, serving as its Director since 1986 to 1991 and remains in ESAN University as licensed professor.

Alejandro Toledo has been a guest professor at the University of Waseda in Tokyo and at the Japan Foundation.

Alejandro Toledo entered politics as an independent candidate for the presidency in the 1995 election in which Alberto Fujimori was ultimately re-elected.

Alejandro Toledo declared his intent to run again in the 2000 election and despite a constitutional controversy about his eligibility to serve a third term, Fujimori announced his candidacy.

Alejandro Toledo promised to uphold and strengthen the market program that had been put in place, while mitigating inequality issues attributed to it.

Alejandro Toledo promised to pursue democratic reforms and reinvigorate Peru's social infrastructure.

Alejandro Toledo repeatedly called for the expansion of investigations into government, including investigations into allegations that the Fujimori administration had stolen billions from government coffers.

Alejandro Toledo referred to himself as El Cholo throughout his campaign, and many indigenous Peruvians hoped that as president he would bring greater attention to issues of importance to them.

Alejandro Toledo's background, engaging manner, and informal attitude made him an attractive candidate to both indigenous and non-indigenous Peruvians.

Shortly after receiving news of Alejandro Toledo's encouraging performance in the initial stage of the vote count, supporters gathered in the streets around Alejandro Toledo's hotel room.

An enthusiastic Alejandro Toledo walked out onto the balcony of his room wearing a red headband, reminiscent of ancient Inca warriors.

Alejandro Toledo optimistically speculated that a first round victory might be within his grasp but still urged his supporters to wait for the results of the quick count.

Alejandro Toledo claimed that a fraud had been perpetrated; other opposition candidates agreed and joined protests led by Alejandro Toledo.

Since no candidate had received a majority of the vote, a runoff was required, but Alejandro Toledo refused to participate in a second round against Fujimori and withdrew from the race on 26 May 2000, two days before the runoff.

Alejandro Toledo unsuccessfully petitioned to have the election annulled, and lobbied international organizations and foreign government to deny recognition to Fujimori's government.

Alejandro Toledo thereby became the first South American president of indigenous descent to be democratically elected in five hundred years.

People expect Alejandro Toledo to solve all the problems of the last 30 years, which included an enormous increase in relative poverty.

Alejandro Toledo promised open market free trade reforms, which reflected Peru's business interests while promising to review Fujimori's privatization programs.

Specifically, Alejandro Toledo promised not to privatize any of Peru's public utilities.

In November 2001, Alejandro Toledo opened talks which concluded in the National Accord of 22 July 2002.

Touting his heritage throughout his campaign, Alejandro Toledo continued the efforts begun by Paniagua, who had brought together experts and indigenous leaders to discuss the needs of indigenous people throughout the country.

Alejandro Toledo brought serious attention to bilingual education in indigenous schools, creating a new and well-staffed division within the Ministry of Education devoted to the issue.

Alejandro Toledo did implement some of his plans for investment in social infrastructure and institutions.

Alejandro Toledo placed food and infrastructure programs under the Ministry for Women and Social Development and urged that municipalities implement decentralization.

Alejandro Toledo inherited an educational system which had been plagued for decades by mediocrity, low completion rates, inadequate resources, and inequality between genders, classes, and races.

Alejandro Toledo launched Project Huascaran, which enabled primary and secondary-school classrooms to connect a nationwide computer network of learning systems.

In 2002, Alejandro Toledo declared an emergency in education, stating four objectives to respond to it:.

Alejandro Toledo attempted to improve access to healthcare in the most remote places.

The Alejandro Toledo administration provided financial incentives to young doctors who were willing to spend the first few years of their practices in remote areas.

Alejandro Toledo's administration sought to improve access to affordable housing through subsidies, loans, down payments, land titling, and encouraging financial institutions to reach further down-market.

Alejandro Toledo divided the single district up, called for regional elections, and eliminated the centralist Ministry of the Presidency that had been instituted under Fujimori.

However, when Peru Possible's rival political party APRA made significant gains in regional elections, the Alejandro Toledo administration halted its decentralization program by withholding power in the areas of revenue and expenditure.

Alejandro Toledo continued to assert control of regional governments by withholding funding.

The commission's final report to President Alejandro Toledo was issued in 2003, and concluded that approximately 69,000 people had been killed by the Shining Path and other extremist groups, the bulk of the victims being innocent peasants.

Alejandro Toledo wasted no time in pursuing suspected terrorists, arresting 199 of them in 2002 alone.

Alejandro Toledo walked a thin line in responding to both US pressure to severely limit coca-production and protests by coca farmers against the eradication of coca production in poor, rural areas, where the majority of the population is involved in that business.

Alejandro Toledo saw that revenue from drug trafficking funded terrorist activities, but that US insistence on the eradication of coca crops failed to address the problem.

At a meeting of the 19-member Rio group in May 2003, Alejandro Toledo proposed developing a joint strategy to deal with drug trafficking, but pressure from Washington, which preferred bilateral efforts, helped kill the notion.

The Alejandro Toledo administration held free trade agreement talks with Singapore and Thailand, came to an agreement with Thailand on air transport, and signed an extradition treaty with South Korea.

Alejandro Toledo attended Evo Morales' inauguration in 2006, indicating a willingness to work with his administration, but Morales joined his mentor, Hugo Chavez, in repeatedly making offensive comments about Alejandro Toledo and his government, especially after the successful conclusion of Peru's free trade agreement with the US, which soured official relations with Colombia.

In conducting Peru's relations with Brazil, Alejandro Toledo's goal was to reorient Peru from the Andean Community, toward the more economically active Brazil and MERCOSUR.

Alejandro Toledo joined Ecuadorian President Noboa at the International Advisory Committee of the Binational Development Plan, where they called for greater investment in their region, with Alejandro Toledo putting forth a detailed program for international assistance.

Relations with Venezuela deteriorated during the latter half of the Alejandro Toledo presidency owing to opposing philosophies and policies of presidents Alejandro Toledo and Chavez.

President Alejandro Toledo worked hard throughout his presidency on what became a very productive relationship with the US, and what Alejandro Toledo described as a personal friendship with President Bush.

Alejandro Toledo received lavish praise from the American president for his economic and domestic security policies.

In Peru, the treaty was championed by Alejandro Toledo, and supported to different extents by former President Alan Garcia and candidates Lourdes Flores and Valentin Paniagua.

Alejandro Toledo decided not to carry out the sale of electric companies, but promised to continue privatization efforts, which were a key provision of a deal struck with the International Monetary Fund.

Alejandro Toledo was unable to run for reelection in 2006; after he took office, the constitution was amended to restore the pre-1995 ban on immediate reelection.

In 2007, following the closing of media outlet RCTV in Venezuela, Alejandro Toledo published an op-ed in The New York Times condemning the action of President Hugo Chavez's government as a violation of free speech.

Alejandro Toledo called for intervention by the Organization of American States, citing its commitment to protecting the development of democratic institutions, including the press.

Alejandro Toledo called for "continent-wide solidarity" on the grounds that the repression of free speech in a country is felt beyond the country itself.

In 2009, Alejandro Toledo joined the Brookings Institution as a nonresident senior fellow.

Alejandro Toledo is a member of the United Nations Steering Committee on the Human Development Report for Latin America, a member of the Club of Madrid, and a member of the International Board of Governors of the Peres Center for Peace in Israel.

Alejandro Toledo attended the San Francisco Freedom Forum in 2011 to discuss democracy in Latin America.

In 2010, Alejandro Toledo joined the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate David Trimble, Italian philosopher Marcello Pera, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, British historian Andrew Roberts, and others in forming the Friends of Israel Initiative.

In December 2010, Alejandro Toledo announced his candidacy in the 2011 presidential election.

However, Alejandro Toledo's support came with conditions, and he threatened to mobilize protests if Humala's presidency did not live up to Alejandro Toledo's standards in terms of protecting democratic institutions, human rights, and stimulating the economy.

Amidst worries that Humala's election represented a shift too far to the left, Peru Posible, under the leadership of Alejandro Toledo, announced the month after the election that its members would not accept ministerial positions within the administration and would limit its support of Humala's government to backing on some issues in the Congress.

Alejandro Toledo is accused of taking bribes from the Brazilian companies Camargo Correa and Odebrecht for the construction of the Interoceanic Highway, and using the money to pay off personal mortgages and buy luxury real estate in the name of his mother in law.

Alejandro Toledo was arrested by US authorities in July 2019 after a formal request by Peru for his extradition.

Alejandro Toledo was released on bail in 2020 and was living in California.

On 21 April 2023, Alejandro Toledo surrendered himself to US authorities in San Mateo, California.

On 23 April 2023, Alejandro Toledo was extradited to Peru, where he was transferred to Peruvian police.

Alejandro Toledo has lectured in more than thirty countries on issues of poverty, economic growth, and democracy, as well as on the benefits of human-capital investment.

Alejandro Toledo received the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint-Charles from Monaco in 2003.