AMERICA - Odebrecht case, many involved but a single protagonist: corruption

Saturday, 18 February 2017 politics   corruption  

Brasilia (Agenzia Fides) – What happened on February 16, 2017 can be defined a historical event, unprecedented in the history of Latin America: the meeting between the Ministers of Justice (or their representatives) of 11 Latin American countries with the main aim to find common solutions to deal with an exceptional international event: the Odebrecht case.
Odebrecht is a Brazilian construction company which is directly involved in the scandal on black money "Petrobras".
The conclusion of the meeting, which will be known from now on as the "Brasilia Declaration on International Legal Cooperation against Corruption", contains eight agreements signed by delegates from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Dominican Republic and Venezuela. The first point of the agreement provides that all signer countries are committed to an effective and quick mutual legal cooperation on the Odebrecht case.
The Odebrecht case continues to widen and to involve political corruption and officials in each country listed. In many countries the Church has raised its voice, citing the case in the necessary fight against corruption. In Peru, the Bishops' Conference has called for clarification in the sense of transparency and firmness (see Fides 20/01/2017), while the Peruvian Justice informed of the measures envisaged in order to find those responsible for the $ 29 million spent in the country illegally from 2005-2014 as bribes or kickbacks to politicians and middlemen involved. At an international level, the judges have not yet specified the amount of money paid to politicians and public officials in the countries but, according to initial estimates, we are speaking of a total figure of about $ 800 million (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 18/02/2017)


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