19 de julio 2024
AA
Share
The US senator from New Jersey, Bob Menendez, one of the most recognizable Latino politicians within the Democratic Party, was found guilty Tuesday by a jury on all bribery and corruption charges (16 in total) for which he was accused in a New York court.
The sentence to be handed down by the judge will be announced on October 29, according to Judge Sidney Stein.
The prosecution had accused Menéndez, 70, and his wife, Nadine, of accepting million-dollar gifts from Egypt and Qatar to help them politically while in office, to the point of labeling him a “foreign agent.”
The senator never wanted to reach a plea deal, which could have reduced his sentence from a maximum of 20 years and claimed the gifts received as something natural in the activity of a politician.
Menendez’s Story
The story of Senator Robert ‘Bob’ Menendez (New York, 70 years old) can be told in chronological order or in reverse, but after being found guilty today of 16 corruption charges, the narrative is diametrically different depending on where you start.
The son of a carpenter and a seamstress who fled Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship in Cuba to settle in New York, Menendez graduated and earned his law degree from Rutgers School of Law, a source of great pride for his family.
He combined his work in the academic world with a political career that began at age 19, when he joined the Union City (New Jersey) Board of Education, a city where he later served as mayor from 32 to 38 years old.
What followed in the next decade was his political consolidation, leading him first to Congress and then to become a senator for New Jersey since 2006, standing out as a defender of Latino community rights, a champion of social causes, and a staunch opponent of the Cuban regime.
A ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ Profile
However, those who know him intimately describe him as a sort of ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’; capable of passionately fighting for minority issues with apparent nobility while simultaneously feeling a fatal attraction to power, influence, and money.
Thus, he became a very controversial figure even within his own party (Democrat).
In 2014, the FBI investigated him for his possible relationship with Ecuadorian fugitives accused of embezzlement; shortly after, he was accused of accepting irregular payments for his campaign from a wealthy Florida ophthalmologist; and now he has been found guilty of bribery and corruption as a ‘foreign agent’ for Egypt and Qatar.
In exchange for, among other things, a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible for his wife Nadine – of Lebanese origin, whom he married in 2020 and who is also involved in the case – and several gold bars worth $100,000.
Additionally, during the investigation, up to half a million dollars in cash was found, partially stored in the pockets of his clothes hanging in a closet.
“It wasn’t enough for him to be one of the most powerful people in Washington (…) He also wanted to amass wealth for himself and his wife,” said federal prosecutor Paul Monteleoni during the final argument of this latest trial.
A description from which Bob Menendez has tried to distance himself during the trial, linking it to a supposed “campaign” by those who “cannot accept that a first-generation Latino” becomes a senator and “serves with honor” in the United States.
Familiar with the intricacies of national politics, Menendez has never missed opportunities to position himself and interfere in international affairs, especially those related to Latin America, demonstrating on numerous occasions his rejection of the Cuban government.
In 2009, he asked the US to suspend its funding to the OAS if Cuba was readmitted; four years later, he became the first Latino to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and in 2016 he passed a law to limit Nicaragua’s access to foreign loans.
Under the appearance of a kind gentleman, with two children and a taste for pinstripe tuxedos, Menendez – a man of Cuban roots who accepted that everyone called him Bob for short – may now be facing the end of his career, overshadowed by the traces of a Mercedes-Benz and the weight of some gold bars.
This article was published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times. To get the most relevant news from our English coverage delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Dispatch.
