Lava Jato

July 18, 2017 By Fausta

The beginner’s guide to Brazil corruption

The BBC has Brazil corruption scandals: All you need to know. It’s clearly not all you need to know, since not only are entire books being written on the subject, the Beeb forgot to mention that the Federal Police shut down the Lava Jato task force, for instance, and Odebrecht is almost a second thought.

But the article is OK as a beginner’s guide to Brazil corruption, the way comic books used to be an introduction to classic novels like, say, War and Peace.

I’ve been posting on Odebrecht and Lava Jato for years, but the extent of the corruption is such that by now it is safe to say that Brazil’s corruption is second to none.

If you can read Portuguese and have hours to spare, browse through O Globo’s Lava Jato section. It is an object lesson on the corruption big government brings about.

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

July 12, 2017 By Fausta

BAD NEWS: Brazil shuts down Lava Jato task force UPDATED

Bad-bad news:
Brazil Shuts Down Successful Corruption-Fighting Task Force

Brazil’s Federal Police announced this week that it would shut down a crusading anticorruption task force, drawing a rebuke from prosecutors who warned the move could throttle investigations that have exposed systemic corruption among the country’s political and business elites.

The decision comes as President Michel Temer, who is among the politicians facing criminal charges stemming from the unit’s work, is scrambling to shore up support among lawmakers to avoid trial over bribery allegations.

Never mind that; the excuse is “to increase efficiency,”

The Federal Police, which announced the shift on Thursday, characterized it as a bureaucratic reshuffling of personnel and resources that would increase efficiency. In a statement, it said that members of the team known as the Lava Jato, or Car Wash, task force would be absorbed into the organization’s main anticorruption division to more effectively “fight against corruption and money laundering and facilitate the exchange of information.”

Task force members, Brazil’s national association of prosecutors and the federation of Federal Police call it “a clear setback,” which is quite the understatement when you consider that Lava Jato investigators have recovered more than US$3 billion so far, and they were not done.

This will have very negative effects on the economy. Prof. Steve Hanke tweeted,

Ending Car Wash task force= major setback in Brazil’s fight against corruption. Dragging whole economy down. https://t.co/JNqr5CFil4

— Prof. Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) July 12, 2017

In more bad news, Venezuelan drug lords are using the port of Santos, Brazil, to ship meth and cocaine to Europe via Guinea Bissau, Nigeria and Ivory Coast in Africa.

UPDATE
Lula got a 10-year prison sentence. Will he do time in jail?

May 15, 2017 By Fausta

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.

May 10, 2017 By Fausta

Brazil: Lula goes to court

Brazil’s ex-President Lula in court over corruption

Lula is facing five charges related to the Car Wash scandal, a three-year investigation that has embroiled more than 100 politicians.

If convicted, he could face jail. If he gets off, he could return to the presidency in the 2018 elections.

He denies any wrongdoing.

Lula will give his testimony at a court in the southern city of Curitiba, where hundreds of his red-shirted supporters have been gathering to protest.

O Globo has live coverage.

It’s been a rough week for Lula; yesterday a judge shut down the Lula Institute:

A Brazilian judge ordered on Tuesday that the institute founded by former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva suspend its operations.

The ruling was made by federal Judge Ricardo Augusto Soares Leite, who is overseeing one of the five prosecutions Lula faces for alleged corruption

The prosecutors leading Brazil’s “Car Wash” anticorruption investigation have vowed to push ahead with the probe despite a new bill that they say limits their ability to do their jobs.

April 13, 2017 By Fausta

Brazil: Lula “ready to run” again next year

Part of the fun of following Latin American news is that they are stranger than fiction. For instance, I first came across this headline at Panam post: Former Brazilian President Lula “Prepared” To Run Again in 2018.

They, in turn, got it from El Nuevo Herald: Lula dice estar “preparado” a ser candidato presidencial en 2018.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

So I checked Brazilian media, and, sure enough, Lula da Silva pronto para voltar a disputar a Presidência. Antigo presidente brasileiro diz que os seus “adversários estão muito nervosos”. [Lula da Silva ready to run for President. Former president says his “adversaries are very nervous.”]. In an interview with Radio Meio Norte, Lula declared,

“Quero dizer que, se necessário, se o Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) precisar eu estou disposto a voltar a disputar para ser Presidente”
[my translation:] “I want to say, that, if necessary, if the “Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party, or PT) needs me, I am ready to run for President”

In another interview (link in Portuguese), Lula looked back nostalgically to his years as president and sighed, “I think the country needs to find its way, to be happy again, to live democratically.”

Lula was indicted five times on corruption-related charges just last year alone. That doesn’t count the evidence presented in court this week, any new charges, or the indictments against his children, his wife, or his associates. As Sabrina Martín correctly points out,

Lula is under investigation in connection with the Lava Jato operation. One investigation is allegedly claims that payments were made for a former Petrobras director’s silence; another is for Operation Zelotes, a framework that favored companies that did not pay taxes, as well as an investigation into influence peddling, and finally for money laundering which allegedly included an apartment on the coast Of Sao Paulo as one of the inducements.

Likewise, Lula is accused of participating in the project of rerouting between 2% and 3% of the value of the contracts signed between state-owned Petrobras and the construction company Odebrecht.

Let’s hope the Brazilian people stay the course fighting corruption and don’t get Lula back on the campaign trail.

April 12, 2017 By Fausta

Brazil: Marcelo Odebrecht paid Lula US$5 million in bribes

Former Odebrecht Organization CEO Marcelo Odebrecht (whose grandfather Norberto founded the company in 1944) presented Judge Sergio Moro documents showing payments totaling nearly US$5 million to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, reports Infobae (link in Spanish).

The payments were made in 2012-2013 through Dilma Rousseff’s right-hand man, Antonio Palocci, who is under trial.

Marcelo Odebrecht, who has been in jail since 2015, reportedly provided the documents in hope of a reduced sentence, according to Infobae.

The WSJ reports Brazil Supreme Court Authorizes Investigation of Top Government Officials in the Lava Jato investigation,

Justice Edson Fachin, who is overseeing cases in Brazil’s high court related to the country’s sprawling Operation Car Wash probe, has given permission for prosecutors to open investigations into at least eight ministers, the leaders of both houses of Congress, and more than 50 senators and federal deputies, according to a document from the court released Tuesday.

The Car Wash investigation, which centers on bid-rigging at the state-controlled oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, has led to more than 100 convictions over the past three years and implicated some of the country’s most influential businessmen and politicians of all major parties.

If you are keeping count, in 2016 Lula was indicted five times on corruption-related charges.

May 12, 2016 By Fausta

Brazil: Senate votes to try Dilma for impeachment

Senate voted 55 to 22 in favor of holding the trial
Dilma suspended for 180 days
Michel Temer, the vice-president will replace her
Senate voting session started yesterday and lasted through the night
Dilma’s the 2d president to be tried for impeachment since democracy was restored in 1985. In 1992, then-President Fernando Collar Collor de Mello resigned after he was put on trial by the Senate on corruption charges.
#TachauQuerida trending
Dilma’s most recent approval ratings at 10%
Brazil is Latin America’s largest economy

SAY GOODBYE
#TchauQuerida #QuintaClubeSDV #impeachmentbrazil pic.twitter.com/ncZuSCXNKW

— snap: caiosnom (@caiosnunes) May 12, 2016

At the WSJ:
Brazil Senate Votes in Favor of Dilma Rousseff Impeachment Trial. President will have to step down until trial ends; vice president will assume her post

Ms. Rousseff is being tried on charges that she illegally moved money between state-controlled entities to make her government’s budget deficit appear smaller than it really was. She denies wrongdoing and accuses her opponents of effectively staging a coup d’état.

Michel Temer is ready to take office. His party, the [Brazilian Democratic Movement Party] PMDB promotes (my translation),

labor and social security reforms, smaller government, reducing the interventionism that marked the PT’s administrations [under Lula and Dilma], and stimulating the private sector’s participation, especially in infrastructure.

The economy is in free fall: Brazil’s Economic Rise and Fall in Charts Underlines Temer’s Tough Task

Mr. Temer’s success or failure will depend on his ability to overcome three major crises—corruption, political dysfunction and Brazil’s worst recession in generations—that are deeply interconnected. Temer would permanently assume the presidency only if the Senate trial ends on a guilty verdict (see this post).

Related:
Lava-Jato

Memeorandum thread.

January 19, 2015 By Fausta

The easement Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

This Carnival is dedicated to the new meaning of the word easement, which, following last Friday’s U.S. Department Of Commerce and U.S Department Of The Treasury Announcement Of Regulatory Amendments To The Cuba Sanctions now includes “making a deal where one gets nothing in return.”

However, the big news of the day is Alberto Nisman’s death by a gunshot wound in his home while his bodyguards were absent. Go to this morning’s post for more.

ARGENTINA
THE LONESOME DEATH OF ALBERTO NISMAN

Oil and trouble
A prosecutor accuses the president of obstructing justice in the country’s biggest terror case

In 2013, Argentina announced that it would collaborate with Iran in a joint commission “to advance knowledge of the truth about the attack,” as Ms Fernández wrote on Twitter at the time. The country’s Jewish population, the world’s seventh largest, was puzzled and angry about the accord. Now the prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, alleges that the controversial deal was reached in back-channel negotiations that Ms Fernández initiated with Iran. He claims that she offered to cover up the involvement of any Iranian officials in exchange for increased trade. Argentina would export grain to Iran, while Iran would sell oil to Argentina to ease its severe energy deficit.

In the end, for reasons that are still unclear, the negotiations failed and the deal fell apart. But Mr Nisman has marshalled evidence of the talks in a 300-page document that he filed in a Buenos Aires court. “They decided, negotiated, and assured the impunity of the fugitive Iranians in the AMIA case with the aim of faking Iran’s innocence to serve geopolitical and commercial interests,” Mr Nisman declared. The allegations against Ms Fernández, her foreign minister, Héctor Timerman, and others are based on “irrefutable proof” from two years of investigations and myriad wiretaps, Mr Nisman claims.

Kirchner Accused of Covering Up 1994 Terrorist Bombing
Prosecutor: President Made Secret Deal with Iran for Cheap Oil

Fernandez Graft Cases Multiply in Argentine Electoral Year

Argentina’s Jews Reel From New Twist in Terror Probe
Prosecutor Accuses President Christina Kirchner of Conspiring to Cover Up a Probe Into a 1994 Terrorist Attack on a Jewish Center

Argentina’s Kirchner Named in Criminal Complaint
An Argentine prosecutor filed a complaint against President Cristina Kirchner, her foreign minister and others for allegedly conspiring to cover up a probe into Iran’s alleged involvement in the bombing of a Jewish community center.

A federal prosecutor in Argentina has filed a criminal complaint against President Cristina Kirchner , her foreign minister and others, accusing them of conspiring to cover up an investigation into Iran’s alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in this capital city.

The prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, said on Wednesday that Mrs. Kirchner had ordered Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and others to negotiate immunity for Iranian suspects in hopes this would reestablish trade ties and allow Argentina to import Iranian oil to ease a domestic energy crisis. The alleged plan didn’t come to fruition, however.

Prosecutor: Argentinian President Plotted to Cover Up Iranian Role in AMIA Bombing

ARUBA
Aruba Tops 1 Million Visitors for First Time

It also makes Aruba one of just five Caribbean destinations above the 1 million mark, along with the Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.

Cuba’s 1 million visitors sure made a difference so far, or haven’t they?

BOLIVIA
Bolivian Peasants Urged On by Drug Traffickers Hold Hostage, Beat 4 Police

BRAZIL
Petrobras’s Lesson for Latin America
We Ignore Cronyism at Our Peril

Codenamed Lava Jato, or “car wash,” the investigation into Petrobras operations by police and public prosecutors revealed a colossal corruption scheme involving former top executives, construction companies, and prominent politicians from the governing coalition dominated by the Workers’ Party (PT). Evidence uncovered so far suggests the privileged club of racketeers pocketed billions of dollars under the cover of public contracts.

CHILE
Chile’s Penta Case Pulls Dozens Into Corruption Scandal
Officials Took Cash for Influence, Allege Prosecutors

Chile’s Landmark Electoral Reform Passes Senate Hurdle
Binomial System on the Way Out, Gender Quota on the Way In

After a marathon 20-hour session on Wednesday, January 14, the Chilean Senate approved reform to an electoral system that dates back to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The objective is to increase the number of deputies and senators, and change the voting mechanism from binomial to proportional.

COLOMBIA
Why is Colombia Smuggling Coca Base to Honduras?

Colombia’s Santos Orders Discussion of Bilateral Cease-Fire with FARC

COSTA RICA
Costa Rica’s Quakers dodged US draft, now face perils of changing world
After leaving Alabama in 1951, small group of American pacifists maintains community in Central American highlands

CUBA
U.S. eases Cuba embargo

Breaking News from the Rumor Desk: Fidel gravely ill due to “embolia” (embolism)

Via Babalu,
* Obama will allow Americans to use credit cards in Cuba
* Castro will continue to prohibit private businesses from accepting credit card payments

ECUADOR
Ecuador targets cartoonist as world rejects Paris attacks

EL SALVADOR
U.N.’s Ban Ki-Moon Worried by El Salvador Violence as Murders Soar

FALKLAND ISLANDS
Bronze bust of Margaret Thatcher unveiled in Port Stanley
A statue honouring former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who lead Britain to victory in the 1982 conflict to defend the islands the Falkland Islands, has been unveiled in Port Stanley.

HONDURAS
U.S. Seeks to Seize Properties Bought by Corrupt Honduran Officials

IMMIGRATION
CBO: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS GRANTED EXECUTIVE AMNESTY WOULD BE ELIGIBLE FOR CERTAIN FEDERAL BENEFITS

México: las rutas de los migrantes que no pueden viajar en La Bestia

MEXICO
DECOMPOSING BODY OF MURDERED MEXICAN ACTRESS FOUND IN WATER TANK

Mexico’s Unemployment Drop Points to Labor Market Recovery
Unemployment In Mexico Last Month Was 3.8%

MEXICO PROVIDING BIRTH CERTIFICATES TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN U.S.

Losing marijuana business, Mexican cartels push heroin and meth

PANAMA
Obama to Meet With Cuban Dictator Raul Castro in Panama

PERU
Peru’s Entire Economy Is Threatened By Anchovies