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American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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The Peru-Ecuador border wall

You probably didn’t know about this wall:
Peru has demanded that Ecuador stop construction work on a wall that its neighbor is building on the border between the two countries

The border has long been a source of tensions between the two Andean countries. Decades of tension descended into open military confrontation in 1995 which lasted three years before a peace agreement was signed.

The Peruvian government claims that the construction of the wall violates the terms of the agreement, in which the two countries agreed to leave a space of 10 meters on either side of the canal free from any building construction.

Ecuador has put aside $4.4 million for the four-meter-tall border wall construction, which is expected to be concluded in September. Local Ecuadorian official Manuel Zumba told AFP the barrier complies to all agreements and is supposed to fight contraband and won’t hinder movement of people as the wall construction is part of a project to regenerate the area, reviving trade and tourism.

Add some solar panels, and you got the art of the deal!

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Peru beats Uganda

An interesting article on what Peru has done well,

Why foreign investors choose Peru and not, erm, Uganda?

And yes, Peru’s recent economic burst can be attributed to high commodity prices and massive Chinese spending. But herein lies the kernel of Peru’s success. Institutions and reforms were implemented prior to the commodity boom, ensuring Peru could reap the full benefit of the price surge.

A rigorous programme of trade liberalisation and business friendly policies, including a complete overhaul of the mining sector in the early-2000s, helped boost investments and exports of copper and iron ore. Strengthening crucial institutions such as the tax authority and the regulatory regime have institutionalised reforms, encouraging economic diversity and deepening accountability.

The next wave of sectoral reform – following mining – is already under way in agriculture. This has spurred widespread innovation and has transformed a country of subsistence farmers known for its discovery of the potato into a globally competitive agribusiness. Peru is the world’s leading exporter of asparagus, the second largest exporter of avocados and a major producer of coffee, grapes and a wide range of other fruits and vegetables. Agricultural exports of Peru, a nation of 31-million, totalled nearly $6-billion in 2016. By comparison, Uganda’s agriculture exports, making up 80% of its total exports, were just $1.8-billion.

Read the whole thing.

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Colombia: Magdalena River dredging project suspended over Odebrecht

The project to make the Magdalena River in Colombia more navigable has been suspended:
Odebrecht Bribery Plea Muddies Colombia’s Big River Project. Channelization of Magdalena River stalled over corruption fears, thwarting country’s ambitious infrastructure plans

A string of gritty river towns along Colombia’s mightiest river have waited years for mounds of silt to be dredged from the waterway, a project that was supposed to start last year and bolster growth in Latin America’s fourth-largest economy.

But the $862-million contract to make 565 miles of the Magdalena River more navigable went mostly to Brazilian firm Odebrecht SA, whose explosive admission that it paid extensive bribes to land infrastructure projects led Colombian regulators last month to suspend the river works. That contract, which promised to triple river cargo, was the cornerstone of a now troubled $25-billion infrastructure initiative to build new highways, airports and ports that would modernize a country bedeviled by its rugged terrain.

The Odebrecht corruption investigation has tied up hundreds of infrastructure projects in the hemisphere: Odebrecht Mess Leaves Devastation Trail From Andes to Caribbean, among them

Peru’s grandest infrastructure project. The 1,025-kilometer (637-mile) Gasoducto Sur Peruano was meant to climb from Cuzco’s jungle gas fields to nearly 5,000 meters (16,405 feet) above sea level and then back down. Only 33 kilometers of pipe were in the ground before bribery allegations ended Odebrecht’s access to funds, prompting the government to terminate the contract last month.

Peru is particularly affected,

Nowhere is the scandal more damaging than in Peru where President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski is struggling to make good on his promise to boost growth by investing in infrastructure. Cancellation of Odebrecht’s pipeline contract set back a $70-billion infrastructure plan. Other projects have slowed under added scrutiny. Finance Minister Alfredo Thorne was forced to shave a percentage point off his growth forecast for 2017.

The BBC has a brief summary, Brazil’s Odebrecht corruption scandal

UPDATE
Trending at BadBlue.

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Peru: Woman scrambles out of a mudslide

Incredible strength and a will to live,
Peru flooding: woman scrambles out of vast mudslide – video

A woman stumbles across rafts of debris to make it to safety after being caught in a huge mudslide that crashed through the outskirts of Lima. Media reports in Peru said Evangelina Chamorro Díaz, 32, escaped without serious injury. “She is a little confused, but she is very well and will recover because she is a warrior and thank God nothing serious happened,” health minister Patricia Garcia said after visiting Díaz on Thursday. Several days of unusually heavy rains have killed at least a dozen people in the country.

Video starts right away (below the fold)

[Read more…]

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Peru: PPK visits Trump

Not much coverage on this, the “first sit-down meeting” with a Latin American president,
Peru’s President Talks Growth, Trade and ‘Bridges’ With TrumpU.S. President Donald Trump on Friday held his first sit-down meeting with a Latin American leader since taking office, and was told by visiting President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski of Peru that Peruvians “prefer bridges to walls.

Mr. Kuczynski, a former Wall Street banker and ex-World Bank economist, came to discuss economic growth in the region and problematic hot spots such as Venezuela.
. . .
Peru has a free-trade agreement with the U.S., China, Canada and European Union, among others. It was also a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact from which Mr. Trump withdrew the U.S., and the Pacific Alliance, a four-member Latin American group that includes Mexico, Chile and Colombia.

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Peru: Where in the world is Alejandro Toledo?

Apparently former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo was trying to get to Israel, which does’t want him. He was flying from San Francisco, since he’s a visiting professor at Stanford University.

Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has urged his US counterpart Donald Trump to consider deporting fugitive ex-Peruvian leader Alejandro Toledo.

The US has said that it is unable to arrest the ex-leader until further information on the case against him has been shared, Peruvian officials say.

Rick Moran has more details,

What makes this case unusual is that the U.S. denied what amounts to a routine request from Peru. This is especially true with no explanation forthcoming from the Departments of State or Justice.

While it’s true there was no warrant or request for extradition, the U.S. would have normally held Toledo as a courtesy to the Peruvian government.

Unless there’s a deal in the works where Toledo would provide information. Let’s not forget Odebrecht has already lost a lawsuit in the U.S.

Toledo asserts that he’s not a fugitive,

“Tell me where in the world is Alejandro Toledo”

Toledo apparently remains in the San Francisco area as of the writing of this post.

However, if he’s actively trying to leave the U.S., the likelihood of deportation to Peru must be a lot closer than we’re being led to believe.

And,
Has Peru filed a formal extradition request?

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Colombia & Peru: Presidents and Odebrecht

 

Santos on the left, Toledo center, two other men

Andrea Zarate reports on how the Odebrecht Corruption Scandal Ensnares Leaders of Peru and Colombia, specifically Toledo of Peru,

Peruvian prosecutors accused the former president, Alejandro Toledo, of accepting $20 million in bribes from the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht in exchange for infrastructure contracts, including the rights to build a highway connecting Peru to Brazil.

and recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Santos of Colombia,

In Colombia, prosecutors said Tuesday that President Juan Manuel Santos’s re-election campaign in 2014 might have received about $1 million from Odebrecht, according to The Associated Press. The country’s top prosecutor, Nelson Martinez, said the donations had come through a third party working on behalf of the company, The A.P. reported. Mr. Santos did not comment.

As you may recall, Odebrecht allegedly had a department in charge of bribing officials around the world.  It appears they were very thorough.

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Peru: Odebrecht pipeline contract cancelled UPDATE: Odebrecht expelled

As you may recall, Peru demanded cash from Odebrecht ahead of any plea deal talks.

Now the country is cancelling a contract with Odebrecht to build a $7-billion natural-gas pipeline:

Mines and Energy Minister Gonzalo Tamayo said on Monday the Southern Peruvian Gas Pipeline consortium, which is majority-owned by Odebrecht, failed to meet Monday’s deadline to secure financing and would be officially told on Tuesday that the contract will be rescinded.

Mr. Tamayo said the consortium would also be assessed a $262-million penalty for not completing the contract to build the 700-mile-long pipeline to transport cheap natural gas from the Amazon to towns across the southern highlands and on to the Pacific. Odebrecht has a 55% stake in the project. Spain’s Enagas has 25%, and Peru’s Graña y Montero has 20%.

Odebrecht has admitted to paying $29 million in bribes in Peru.

In other Odebrecht news, theBrazilian Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki, who

was scheduled to start reviewing testimony in coming weeks from 77 executives and employees of the Brazilian construction group Odebrecht, which last month signed a leniency agreement with U.S., Brazilian and Swiss authorities

died in an airplane crash last Thursday. President Michel Temer will name his replacement, who in turn “can either keep the process moving or bring it to a halt,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

UPDATE
Peru Moves to Oust Brazilian Construction Company Odebrecht Over Bribes. Peru is the second country to bar the company after Odebrecht admitted to paying hundreds of millions of dollars to win contracts

Last week, Colombia said it was working to remove Odebrecht from the country after the firm admitted paying $11 million to secure road and other projects.

Ecuador and Panama have also barred Odebrecht from signing contracts for new public works pending the completion of their probes.
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