At 40 years old, Richard Nixon was the second youngest president in the history of the United States. A powerful figure for the great American power, he began his first presidential term in 1968, where, among other achievements, he highlighted mandatory racial integration in Southern schools and initiated a kind of war on cancer. He also preceded the Apollo 11 Mission.
But his second presidential term did not have a good outcome: a break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters, located in the Watergate office building on June 17, 1972, involved the then-President of the United States in an illegal espionage method. After long investigations, on August 9, 1974, he accepted his involvement, which led to his resignation from the presidency. This has been the only time a U.S. president has resigned from office.
Nixon enjoyed respectable approval in the country's social and political circles. His political career allowed him to hold the power of the North American nation. However, everything collapsed with his participation, additionally, in a conspiracy to obstruct the investigation into the illegal wiretapping scandal in which he was involved.
Your decisions had consequences. History, U.S. laws, and the political memory of the time condemned you. There have been no cases like Nixon's in recent North American history, but there have been in the southern hemisphere of the continent.
Regarding the house arrest of former president Álvaro Uribe, whose judicial process will be handled by the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation, by unanimous decision of the Supreme Court of Justice—an unprecedented event in Colombian political history—some cases of former Latin American presidents come to mind who, for some reason, have been convicted or implicated by their country's laws:
The 21st century began with corruption scandals involving officials related to the administration of then-Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. The president was removed from office by Congress in November of that year for «moral incapacity.» He evaded the judicial accusations against him until 2005. He remained in exile in Japan, where he is also a national, until he was arrested in Chile in November 2005.
Fujimori was convicted of various crimes by the Peruvian judicial system:
- Unlawful entry into the home of Trinidad Becerra, wife of his presidential advisor between 1990 and 2000, Vladimiro Montesinos. Sentenced to six years imprisonment.
- Sentenced to 25 years in prison for his responsibility in the crimes of aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, and serious bodily injury.
- Sentenced to another seven and a half years in prison after being found guilty of fraudulent embezzlement, misappropriation of public funds, and ideological falsehood to the detriment of the state.
Alberto Fujimori enjoyed a brief period of freedom between December 24, 2017—when he was pardoned by then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski—and October 3, 2018, when the pardon was revoked by the administration of President Martín Vizcarra. Despite the many accusations weighing against him, in the 2016 general elections, the Fujimori movement, led by his daughter Keiko Fujimori, won 73 of the 130 seats in the unicameral Parliament, meaning that the 56 % secured an absolute majority.
Rafael Correa came to the presidency of Ecuador in January 2007. After completing his third presidential term in 2017, Ecuadorian justice issued a preventative arrest warrant. He is being investigated by the Ecuadorian prosecutor's office. for the crime of kidnapping that Fernando Balda, a former detractor, suffered in 2012. The order was issued for failing to comply with periodic reporting ordered by the prosecutor's office.
Recently, on April 27th of this year, The National Court of Justice of Ecuador sentenced former president Correa to eight years in prison for the crime of bribery, in cases of bribes between the years 2012 and 2016. According to judicial arguments, there was an organized criminal structure, made up of public officials, including former vice president Jorge Glas, who offered deals to national and foreign businessmen, in order to grant infrastructure contracts. According to the prosecution, Correa was the one who institutionalized the dynamic, directed and designed from the presidency of the republic at that time.
But, despite the accusations against him, Rafael Correa is still trying to survive in Ecuadorian political activity. Yesterday, attempted to register - through his sister - his acceptance of his precandidacy for vice president of Ecuador for the February 2021 elections, a few days before the cassation appeal for his sentence is resolved. However, the CNE of that country requires that the acceptance of precandidacies be done in person at the electoral offices. It should be remembered that Correa has resided in Belgium since 2017.
In modern democracies, the concept of equality before the law must be a determining factor. No one, in any democracy, should be above the law. We may have opinions for or against the processes, and even the crimes and punishments, to which this or that leader of this or that party was subjected. A democracy is consolidated to the extent that its institutions function, the separation of powers is a reality, and WE ARE ALL EQUAL BEFORE THE LAW.