Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Ecuador: Odebrecht stoolie turns in tapes of meetings with officials

José Santos, Odebrecht’s top officer in Ecuador, has turned in to investigators videos of his meetings with government officials, according to Veja.

In exchange, he received the shortest sentence of all seventy-seven of the company’s informants.

Seventy-seven singing: Big enough for a symphonic chorus.

Santos’s tapes must be music to the ears of the investigators of the bribes-for-government contracts case(s) against Odebrecht.

Karina Martín reports,

So far, investigations into the Odebrecht case in Ecuador have led to the imprisonment of eight people, among them an uncle of re-elected Vice President Jorge Glas and the former Minister of Electricity Alecksey Mosquera.

General Comptroller Carlos Polit, who is currently outside the country, has been involved, but due to his position, he reportedly enjoys judicial privilege.

Ecuador’s lead prosecutor Carlos Baca alleges that “60 percent of the corruption plot arrived and went through Panamanian ports.”

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

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Brazil: Temer acquitted

Brazil’s top electoral court on Friday acquitted President Michel Temer of charges of illegal campaign financing.

the court’s judges voted 4-3 to clear Mr. Temer and former President Dilma Rousseff of charges they used proceeds from the country’s vast Car Wash corruption scandal to fund their 2014 election campaign.

Interestingly,

The majority of the court’s judges said this week that their understanding of electoral law meant that they should only consider evidence available around the time when the case was first filed more than two years ago, before much of the Car Wash evidence was collected.

The trial lasted four days and was televised for a total of 25 hours.

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Brazil: The heaters in the heaters

From Miami to Rio, via air,

Brazil seizes 60 assault rifles hidden in pool heaters

Police in Brazil have seized 60 assault rifles that had been smuggled from the US city of Miami in a shipment of swimming pool heaters.

The weapons, which included 45 AK-47 guns, were found at the cargo terminal at Rio de Janeiro’s Galeao International Airport.

Four people have been arrested, police said.
. . .
It is believed the guns could have been sold in Brazil for up to $1.5m (£1.1m) in total. Detectives are investigating an exporter in Miami, Globo newspaper reported without identifying them.

In other headlines:
J&F Investimentos, the holding company behind meatpacking giant JBS SA, agreed to pay roughly $3.2 billion in fines

The penalty outpaces the one levied against construction conglomerate Odebrecht last year as part of the same investigation.

The Associated Press reports J&F plans to pay the fine over a span of 25 years.

Yet this penalty is just one part of the plea deal; another component played out in a very public way earlier this month, when J&F co-owner Joesley Batista turned over a secret recording to prosecutors. That recording — which appears to show Temer condoning the payment of hush money to an imprisoned politician — leaked to media earlier this month, prompting protests in the streets and questions of whether Temer’s tenure could survive the scandal.

Temer insists he will remain in office.

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Brazil: Temer asks for his investigation to continue

After asking that it be suspended, Brazil’s President Michel Temer has asked the Supreme Court to proceed with an investigation against him for obstruction of justice and corruption.

His lawyers say that a secret recording that appears to incriminate him has been edited 70 times.
. . .
President Temer was secretly recorded by Joesley Batista, president of Brazilian giant meat-packing firm JBS, during a late-night, unscheduled meeting.
The wealthy businessman made the recording as part of a plea bargain with the prosecutor’s office.
On the tape, Mr Temer seems to signal his approval for illegal payments to the former speaker of the lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha, who was jailed for corruption last year.
. . .
Many expected the president to resign once the contents of the tape were made public.

The WSJ lists Five Ways Brazil’s President Could Be Forced Out

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Brazil: Not good news on Temer

A few headlines:

Brazil President to Ask Court to Suspend Corruption Probe Linked to Him

Brazilian President Michel Temer said he would ask the Supreme Court to suspend its investigation into allegations he was involved in a giant corruption scheme, vowing to remain in power.

Brazil’s President Michel Temer says he will ask the Supreme Court to suspend an investigation against him, because vital evidence has been “manipulated”.

There’s 100% chance that Brazil’s President Michel Temer will leave before end of mandate: Analyst

Brazilians Are Calling for President Temer to Resign
Protesters call for Temer resignation as uncertainty grips Brazil
Pressure Mounts on Brazil’s Temer as Pillars of Support Erode
Finance Minister Henrique Mereilles tipped as Temer’s successor
President’s attempt to dig in risks leaving Brazil with lame duck
Pardon my French, but plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.



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Brazil: Lula trial reveals ties with Chavez

As you may recall, Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is on trial.

All sorts of things are coming out. For instance, Lula personally recruited

Mônica Moura and her husband João Santana, a couple whose marketing strategies helped keep Brazil’s leftist Workers’ Party in power for 13 years

for help in Venezuelan Hugo Chávez’s 2012 campaign. Current dictator Nicolás Maduro (emphasis added)

Mr. Maduro, then Venezuela’s foreign minister, personally handed Ms. Moura $11 million in cash in his Caracas office, she said in the testimony given in court to Brazilian prosecutors in exchange for a reduced sentence on corruption charges. Brazil’s two largest construction companies, Odebrecht SA and Andrade Gutierrez, which are under investigation in Brazil for allegedly paying bribes to Mr. da Silva, wired her an additional $9 million to an offshore account, Ms. Moura said.

As the article correctly points out,

Under Mr. Chávez, Odebrecht became the biggest contractor in Venezuela, receiving roughly $11 billion over 14 years for projects ranging from irrigation channels to airports.
. . .
Odebrecht admitted to paying $98 million in bribes in Venezuela.

Now

The heads of Odebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez, as well as Mr. Santana and Ms. Moura, are all in jail or confined to their homes after being convicted on corruption charges related to Car Wash.

And they’re willing to talk.

Will this have any effect on Venezuela’s deteriorating condition? I doubt it; but it will have repercussions in Brazil.

Stay tuned.

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Venezuela: Where democracy really dies in darkness

You may recall this,

Benjamin Weingarten writes about Where Democracy Really Does Die in Darkness. Obsessed with Trump, Western media ignore the march of authoritarianism around the world. Weingarten writes on Turkey and Hong Kong, and has this to say about Venezuela,

Another story that the media largely ignore is that of the collapse of Venezuela under socialism. The Left’s “May Day”—better titled Victims of Communism Day— came and went with barely a peep about the collapse of the once-vibrant Latin American nation under Hugo Chavez/Nicolás Maduro Stalinism. Just as Turkey is about to fall under the veil of Islamist tyranny, Venezuela is reaching the logical conclusion of Leftist tyranny. Thousands have been taking to the streets in protest. Citizens are going hungry in a country that was once the richest in the region. The government is seizing the assets of global corporations. Inflation is running at 280 percent. In a nation that had banned private gun ownership, Maduro is now planning to arm up to 400,000 loyalists to preserve some semblance of order. Central planning and other attacks on individual liberty and private property rights have turned Venezuela into another failed Communist experiment, leaving its people mired in violence, poverty, and misery.

You might think that the downfall of a nation in America’s hemisphere under democratically elected socialists might be subject to intense media coverage. You would be wrong. Could it be that the Left does not wish to report on the end results of its policies?

The Health Minister got the boot after

Ministry data published this week showed cases of infant mortality rose 30 per cent, maternal mortality 65 per cent and malaria shot up 76 per cent last year. There was also a jump in illnesses such as diphtheria and Zika.

But it’s free healthcare!

Russia, Russia: Russian Oil Deals Provide A Lifeline For Venezuela’s Embattled Maduro.
Russia plans to start supplying wheat to Venezuela this year.

Nicolás’s millions

In a document revealed by Brazil’s Federal Supreme Tribunal, the wife of Brazilian publicist Joao Santana, Mónica Moura, confessed that she received $11 million at the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry headquarters, directly from Nicolás’ hands when he was the Foreign Minister. The Santana-Moura partnership was the brains behind el finado’s last re-election campaign back in 2012: “Chávez, corazón del pueblo.”

As part of her plea bargain with Brazilian justice, Moura confessed under oath that Nicolás handed her $11 million in cash and still owed her $15 more million. Nicolás demanded Moura receive all payments for the campaign without declaring them, with some of the payments fronted Odebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez.

The protests continue,

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Brazil: Lula denies all wrongdoing, but wants to run again

Following up on yesterday’s post, Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was in court and, as expected (emphasis added)

vigorously defended himself in during a court deposition here Wednesday, denying that he had a role in a monumental corruption scheme being investigated by a judge who has become popular for his crusade against graft.

In a show of defiance to Judge Sergio Moro, Mr. Lula repeated his intention to run for the presidency next year, implying that the investigation wouldn’t stop him from returning to office and thereby putting him into a position where he would be immune from charges.

Oh. That.

You can watch the full deposition on YouTube,

Thousands of supporters had gathered outside the Curitba courthouse while Lula was questioned for five hours.

Lula would be banned from running for public office if found guilty

in any of the five trials he faces this year in cases centering on how construction companies overcharged Petrobras on projects, with the illegal funds then channeled to politicians. Mr. da Silva has been indicted on five indictments of corruption, influence-peddling and money-laundering charges.

The Curitiba questions had to do with allegations that he and Mrs. Lula received $1.2 million from OAS, a company that did business with Petrobras, involving a three-story penthouse Lula claims he never owned.

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