LIMA, Peru — A Peruvian judge on Thursday ordered the arrest of former President Alejandro Toledo on suspicion of taking bribes from a Brazilian construction company at the heart of a region-wide corruption scandal.

Judge Richard Concepcion accepted prosecutors' request that Toledo be jailed as they investigate allegations he received $20 million in bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for permission to build a highway connecting Brazil with the Peruvian coast.

Toledo, who was president from 2001-2006, has denied any wrongdoing in the past. He is believed to be abroad. He recently attended a meeting in Paris and is a visiting scholar at Stanford University in California.

The judge said a red alert had been sent to the international police agency Interpol for his arrest "wherever he is."

Odebrecht has admitted to paying almost $800 million in bribes to governments across Latin America as part of a December plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department. In Peru, they acknowledged paying $29 million for projects built during the government of Toledo and two successors.

The alleged payments were believed to have been made through Toledo's friend, Peruvian-Israeli businessman Josef Maiman, who prosecutors say they are also investigating along with the Odebrecht's former boss in the country, whose testimony triggered the probe.

The moves came after police searched Toledo's home in Lima on Saturday.

The former president has said would return to Peru as long as he could be assured of a fair trial.

"Say when, how and where and in what bank they've given me $20 million," an angry Toledo said in an interview with a local radio station over the weekend.

Authorities in Peru and throughout Latin America have been moving fast to charge officials accused of taking bribes from Odebrecht. Toledo is the first former president to face an arrest warrant. </s> (AP Photo/Karel Navarro). Demonstrators protest against the upcoming Summit of the Americas, in Lima, Peru, Thursday, April 12, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump who had planned to attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima canceled his plans, choos...

(Andres Valle/Peruvian Government via AP). In this handout photo provided by the Peruvian government, Peru's President Martin Vizcarra, left, talks with Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno, at the Palace of Pizarro also known as Government Palace, in Lim...

(AP Photo/Martin Mejia). Inter-American Development Bank, IDB, President Luis Alberto Moreno, right, speaks next to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, during a press conference at theWestin Hotel in Lima, Peru, Friday, April 13, 2018. Moreno and Ross...

(AP Photo/Karel Navarro). U.S. Vice President Mike Pence shakes hands with Peruvian diplomat Gustavo Bravo upon his arrival at the Jorge Chavez international airport in Lima, Peru, Friday, April 13, 2018. Pence is in Lima to attend the Americas Summit.

LIMA, Peru (AP) - Cuban President Raul Castro joined a steadily growing list of leaders who have followed U.S. President Donald Trump in choosing to send a surrogate to what is shaping up into a decidedly low-key Summit of the Americas.

The gathering of Western Hemisphere leaders kicked off Friday in Peru without the presence of at least five presidents besides Trump - and the list of canceled RSVPs could grow.

Castro had never officially confirmed his attendance but he was widely expected to show up to bid farewell to regional allies as he prepares to step down from the Cuban presidency in a week's time. Instead he sent his Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez to lead the Cuban delegation.

Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega was also widely expected to snub the event in solidarity with fellow leftist Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, who had his invitation withdrawn.

Meanwhile, the presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala and Paraguay all announced they will be staying home, saying they need to attend to pressing domestic matters and will send alternates instead. Ecuador's president showed up but then quickly returned home after three journalists kidnapped by holdout Colombian rebels were killed.

Analysts said the shrinking list of presidential attendees could be indicative of declining U.S. influence in the hemisphere. Trump is the first U.S. president to ditch the event, which was started by President Bill Clinton in 1994 as a way to assert American trade influence in the region. Trump canceled in order to manage the U.S. response to an apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria.

"It appears that in most of these situations, there are specific and unique reasons for heads of state not to attend," said Matt Clausen, who is in Lima as head of the Washington Office on Latin America. "What has changed since President Trump pulled out is the calculus about the overall importance of the summit."

And it isn't just a rising roster of no-shows that make this year's summit of dubious importance: Presidents from three of Latin America's most populous nations who are attending are all slated to leave office within the next 12 months.

The summit was initially started to promote democracy and free trade in the Americas, but in recent years both topics have become testy subjects. Instead the summit has become a stage for awkward encounters between leftist leaders and their northern counterparts.

Protesters led by soccer legend Diego Maradona burned an effigy of President George W. Bush to protest the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq at the 2005 summit in Argentina. Four years later, the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez famously gave then President Barack Obama a copy of a classic leftist book, "The Open Veins of Latin America," detailing the history of U.S. military interventions in the region.

Another key summit moment came in 2015 when Obama and Castro shook hands while in Panama City four months after the U.S. announced it would renew diplomatic relations with the communist island.

Things have changed dramatically since that handshake.

The Trump administration has rolled back many of Obama's overtures to open travel and commerce with the island and withdrawn most of its diplomats in Cuba over mysterious "sonic attacks" in Havana. Many feared that if Trump had showed up at this year's summit, his harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric and threats to pull out of regional trade deals would have generated tense encounters.

Vice President Mike Pence is expected to use the trip to promote trade and urge regional partners to further isolate Venezuela's government. The region has been grappling with how to respond to Maduro's increasingly autocratic rule, along with a crippling economic crisis and an exploding tide of migration.

Maduro was barred from this year's meeting over his plans to hold a presidential election that most of the opposition is boycotting and that many foreign governments are decrying as a sham. The Venezuelan president said Trump's cancellation was another sign the U.S. still views Latin America as Washington's backyard.

Several of Venezuela's most prominent opposition leaders are gathered in Lima, hoping to help build a forceful region-wide response.

Just before the summit was set to get underway Friday, Trump signaled that he might reopen talks on a Pacific Rim trade deal that he pulled the U.S. out of after taking office.

Without mentioning Trump's policy reversal on the Trans Pacific-Partnership, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau celebrated that several countries in the hemisphere including host Peru - one of the most-open economies in Latin America - have embraced his government's vision of beneficial free trade agreements.

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto also urged the Trump administration to join the accord.

"There's a door open for the U.S. to rethink and eventually reconsider its position," he told a group of business leaders.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> LIMA (Reuters) - U.S. national security adviser John Bolton on Tuesday said Washington was ready to impose sanctions on any international company doing business with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a sharp escalation of U.S. pressure on the leftist leader.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro takes part in a meeting with members of the government at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela July 25, 2019. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

Bolton, addressing a summit on Venezuela in the Peruvian capital Lima, emphasized that tougher international action was needed to speed up a transition of power in the country, where more than four million Venezuelans have fled economic collapse.

“We are sending a signal to third parties that want to do business with the Maduro regime: proceed with extreme caution,” Bolton said.

His speech came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order that freezes the assets of the Venezuelan government and bans any transactions with it, an act that could ensnare its dealings with Russia and China as well as with Western companies.

Bolton, one of the Trump administration’s most influential hawks on Venezuela, told reporters the move forces companies around the world to choose whether to risk access to the United States and its financial system for business with Maduro.

Asked by a reporter how Venezuela would respond to the executive order, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said: “I’m going to paraphrase Donald Trump ... All options are on the table.”

Venezuela’s U.N. Ambassador Samuel Moncada asked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council on Tuesday to intervene.

“This is an act of war by the United States,” Moncada told reporters. “Venezuela is not a threat to anyone and the United States is fabricating this aggression just to take the oil.”

The 15-member U.N. Security Council will be unable to take any action as the United States is one of the body’s five veto powers, along with Russia, China, Britain and France.

It was the first U.S. asset freeze against an entire government in the Western Hemisphere in more than 30 years. But it was also a reminder that successive rounds of U.S. sanctions have so far failed to peel away the crucial support of Venezuela’s military for Maduro, who took office in 2013 following the death of his political mentor President Hugo Chavez.

Continuing the state controls started under Chavez, Maduro has overseen one of the worst economic collapses in recent world history, leaving his nation of 30 million people with severe shortages of food and medicine despite sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves.

In private, Bolton had told Peruvian officials the measure would have the effect of about tripling current sanctions related to Venezuela, a Peruvian government source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The executive order stopped short, however, of a full U.S. trade embargo of the kind imposed on Cuba, experts said, by excluding Venezuela’s still sizeable private sector.

The order maintains some exemptions for companies that do business with state oil company PDVSA [PDVSA.UL], and licenses published on Tuesday reiterated that companies like Chevron and Halliburton can continue to do business with PDVSA in Venezuela through Oct. 25.

Some experts said the move could lead to pushback from other countries, and would require a lot of time and money to prove foreign companies are undermining sanctions.

“How much is the U.S. government willing to spend in diplomatic capital in economic costs in the United States, in order to further its Venezuela policy? said David Murray of the Washington-based firm Financial Integrity Network, an expert on sanctions compliance.

RUSSIA: ‘ECONOMIC TERROR’

Most Western and Latin American democracies accuse Maduro of rigging elections last year and are calling for him to step down so the country can hold a fresh presidential ballot.

The summit, organized by Peru, a regional leader on demanding democratic reforms in Venezuela, had aimed to build support for new elections with Maduro’s allies. Yet Russia, China, Cuba, Turkey, Bolivia and Iran all boycotted the summit.

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Washington’s asset freeze was illegal and amounted to “economic terror”, the RIA news agency reported.

The order also could inflame the U.S.-China trade war if it hits Beijing hard, with Venezuela owing China oil deliveries as repayment for loans through 2021, said Fernando Cutz, a former top aide to Trump on the National Security Council.

Bolton warned Russia against doubling down on its support for Caracas, and urged China to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s legitimate leader if it wanted to recoup debt owed by Caracas, since a new government in Venezuela might not want to honor agreements made with countries that helped Maduro hang onto power.

Bolton said Washington had taken steps to ensure the sanctions did not hurt Guaido and his allies, nor prevent access to humanitarian goods.

Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross also spoke to the Lima summit, promising U.S. support and cooperation to help Venezuela rebuild its oil sector, institutions and economy once Maduro leaves office, without giving details.

The plan has a goal of reversing Venezuela’s decline in oil production within a year, and calls for a long-term deal with the International Monetary Fund, Ross said. </s> FILE - In this March 17, 2011 file photo, Peru's former President Alejandro Toledo campaigns for reelection at the Santa Anita wholesale market in Lima, Peru. A Peruvian judge ordered Toledo's arrest on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017 on suspicions of taking bribes from a Brazilian construction firm at the heart of a region-wide corruption scandal. (AP Photo/Karel Navarro, File)

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A Peruvian judge on Thursday ordered the arrest of former President Alejandro Toledo on suspicion of taking bribes from a Brazilian construction company at the heart of a region-wide corruption scandal.

Judge Richard Concepcion accepted prosecutors' request Toledo be jailed for up to 18 months as they investigate allegations he received $20 million in bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for permission to build a highway connecting Brazil with the Peruvian coast.

Toledo, who was president from 2001-2006, has denied any wrongdoing. He is believed to be abroad. He was in Paris for a meeting earlier in the week and is a visiting scholar at Stanford University in California.

The judge said a red alert had been sent to the international police agency Interpol for his arrest "wherever he is."

"Even though he has been president, he must be subject to the law," said Concepcion, adding that there is "a high degree of probability" he was involved in money laundering and influence peddling, including "selling the (highway) work) in exchange for a sum of money."

Police searched Toledo's home in Lima on Saturday. The 70-year-old former president has said would return to Peru as long as he could be assured of a fair trial.

"Say when, how and where and in what bank they've given me $20 million," an angry Toledo said in an interview with a local radio station over the weekend.

If Toledo is jailed in Peru, he would join Alberto Fujimori as the country's second former president behind bars.

Odebrecht has admitted to paying almost $800 million in bribes to governments across Latin America as part of a December plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department. In Peru, they acknowledged paying $29 million for projects built during the government of Toledo and two successors.

The alleged payments were believed to have been made through Toledo's friend, Peruvian-Israeli businessman Josef Maiman, who prosecutors say they are also investigating along with the Odebrecht's former boss in the country, whose testimony triggered the probe.

Authorities throughout Latin America have been moving fast to charge officials accused of taking bribes from Odebrecht, but Toledo is the first ex-president to face an arrest warrant.

Toledo's lawyer, Heriberto Benitez, said he would appeal the decision and denounce the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Benitez had told the judge the preventative arrest order against his client wasn't merited because of the "guarantee that he will present himself for the legal process." </s> A Peruvian judge has issued a national and international arrest warrant for former President Alejandro Toledo for allegedly taking $20 million in bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

A reward of more than US$30,000 was announced Friday for information leading to his whereabouts.

He was in Paris for a meeting earlier in the week and is a visiting scholar at Stanford University in California.

Judge Richard Concepcion accepted prosecutors’ request Toledo be jailed for up to 18 months as they investigate allegations he received the money in exchange for permission to build a highway connecting Brazil with the Peruvian coast.

The judge said a red alert had been sent to the international police agency Interpol for his arrest “wherever he is.”

Toledo, who was president from 2001-2006, has denied any wrongdoing.

Police searched Toledo’s home in Lima on Saturday. The 70-year-old former president has said would return to Peru as long as he could be assured of a fair trial.

“Say when, how and where and in what bank they’ve given me $20 million,” an angry Toledo said in an interview with a local radio station over the weekend.

If Toledo is jailed in Peru, he would join Alberto Fujimori as the country’s second former president behind bars.

Odebrecht has admitted to paying almost $800 million in bribes to governments across Latin America as part of a December plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department.

In Peru, they acknowledged paying $29 million for projects built during the government of Toledo and two successors.

The alleged payments were believed to have been made through Toledo’s friend, Peruvian-Israeli businessman Josef Maiman, who prosecutors say they are also investigating along with the Odebrecht’s former boss in the country, whose testimony triggered the probe.

The AP contributed to this report. </s> LIMA, Peru (AP) — A lawyer for conservative Peruvian opposition leader Keiko Fujimori says she has been detained as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering in her 2011 presidential campaign. Giuliana Loza says…

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A lawyer for conservative Peruvian opposition leader Keiko Fujimori says she has been detained as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering in her 2011 presidential campaign.

Giuliana Loza says her client was detained Wednesday when she showed up at the chief prosecutor’s office to provide testimony in the ongoing probe.

Prosecutors are looking into the origin of several huge undeclared financial contributions to Fujimori’s campaign.

Fujimori is the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori. A judge recently ordered he be returned to jail to finish a long sentence for human rights abuses. He had received a medical pardon last year by former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> LIMA, Peru — Thousands of Peruvians are demonstrating against the medical pardon that freed former strongman Alberto Fujimori from a 25-year prison sentence.

Thursday night’s protest in Lima marks the second time in less than a month that Peruvians have taken to the streets to protest the pardon granted by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

Demonstrators carried signs with phrases like “Assassin Fujimori” and held photographs of the 25 Peruvians whose deaths the former president was convicted of playing a role in.

Fujimori was pardoned on humanitarian grounds on Christmas Eve. He was released from a clinic less than two weeks later and in messages on Twitter has urged Peruvians to cast aside their bitterness.

Some Peruvians credit Fujimori with defeating the nation’s Maoist guerrillas, but others condemn him for permitting human rights abuses. </s> LIMA, Peru (AFP) – A strong 8.0-earthquake struck northern Peru in the early hours of Sunday, sending residents fleeing from their homes but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

The US Geological Survey said the epicenter was at a depth of 110 kilometers (68 miles).

The quake hit at 0741 GMT about 75 kilometers southeast of the town of Lagunas, along the Amazon basin near the border with Brazil.

“Some casualties and damage are possible and the impact should be relatively localized,” USGS said in a preliminary assessment.

Quakes of similar depth “typically cause less damage on the ground surface (but)… may be felt at great distance from their epicenters,” it later added.

The tremors were felt in northern and central Peru, including the capital Lima.

Seismologists at the Geophysics Institute of Peru said the quake, which lasted just over two minutes, measured 7.5 magnitude, revising an earlier assessment of 7.2 magnitude.

Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra urged citizens “to remain calm” in a message on his official Twitter account. “We’re evaluating the affected areas,” he said.

Initial reports on Peruvian television said some damage to buildings occurred in the city of Yurimaguas, close to the epicenter, but no injuries had been recorded.

“Based on all available data… there is no tsunami threat because the earthquake is located too deep inside the Earth,” the US-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

In February, a quake measuring 7.5 with its epicenter in neighboring Ecuador rattled the coast and Amazon region of northern Peru. It left nine people injured and caused damage in Ecuador, but Peru was unscathed.

Peru is located in a seismically active region, and on Jan. 14 last year a quake measuring 7.3 killed two people and toppled buildings near the southern city of Arequipa. </s> LIMA, Peru (AP) - The Latest on the Summit of the Americas (all times local):

Senate Democrats are urging Vice President Mike Pence to use his trip to Lima to reset relations with a region where they say President Donald Trump's immigrant-bashing rhetoric is costing the U.S. influence.

Demonstrators protest against the upcoming Summit of the Americas, in Lima, Peru, Thursday, April 12, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump who had planned to attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima canceled his plans, choosing to stay in Washington to manage the U.S. response to an apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria. The international summit begins tomorrow.(AP Photo/Karel Navarro)

A letter written by New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez and 13 Senate colleagues says that Trump's derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants and Haiti are "damaging to critical relationships we need to promote our own national interests."

The letter also chastises the Trump administration for deep cuts in foreign aid, ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for so-called "Dreamers" and for its decision to plow ahead with plans to build a wall on the border of Mexico. The letter blames those policies for declining support for the U.S. in the region at a time China and Russia are making important inroads.

The senators encourage Trump to drop an "America First" policy they say is divisive "and embrace instead an 'Americas together' policy." They say that would "advance our strategic interests in the Western Hemisphere, engage our neighbors in a respectful manner, and build on our shared values."

A copy of the letter was provided to The Associated Press.

In this handout photo provided by the Peruvian government, Peru's President Martin Vizcarra, left, talks with Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno, at the Palace of Pizarro also known as Government Palace, in Lima Peru, Thursday, April 12, 2018. Moreno has returned home early from the regional summit amid unconfirmed reports that three press workers kidnapped along the increasingly conflictive border with Colombia have been slain. (Andres Valle/Peruvian Government via AP)
The Chamber of Commerce of Lima warns that just under a million Peruvians are at risk of returning to poverty.