Andean Mayor Attempts Suicide in Courtroom,
February 16, 2005
After receiving a 20 year sentence for plotting a double murder, Florencio Valverde, mayor of the Andean city of Choras, in the presence of an entire camera crew for nationwide television, produced an unidentified flask and drank it. Mayor Valverde claimed that he would never be able to find justice; reportedly, he received a guilty verdict because he refused to pay the judge a $5,000 bribe.