What is Lava Jato, the operation that uncovered a huge network of corruption in Brazil – 21/03/2019

The epicenter of the political earthquake that has raged for years in Latin America was initially located in a gas station in Brasilia, a few kilometers from Plbadto's presidential palace and the Congress headquarters in Brazil.

In this service station, which included a car wash ("Lava Jato", in Portuguese), researchers from the Brazilian Federal Police They discovered a money laundering network that seemed to involve different politicians. But the true dimension of the operation, which has just been five years old (started on March 17, 2014), was unearthed in a few gutters in the following months.

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The case "Lava Jato" is today considered as the largest anti-corruption operation in the history of BrasiAnd that profoundly changed the South American giant, just a few years ago, one of the emerging global powers.

The operation, which began investigating a corrupt plot of the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, has also affected several countries in the region, where it has already provoked strong political fights in countries such as Colombia and especially Peru, where several former presidents are accused.

In Brazil, the scandal continues to shake the foundations of the political and economic elites of a country in permanent crisis. The "Lava Jato" was "the portrait of a corruption that has deep roots in our history," explained in 2017 Deltan Dallagnol, one of the prosecutors in charge.

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Among those involved are powerful entrepreneurs such as the former CEO of the construction company. OdebrechtMarcelo Odebrecht or former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the most famous defendant, imprisoned in Curitiba for almost a year.

Since the beginning of the operation, five years ago and four days ago, the justice of the peace has already pronounced 50 convictions and sentenced 242 convictions against 155 people. The sum of the penalties amounts to 2,242 years and 5 days.

Lula, icon of the left for the success of his two mandates between 2003 and 2010, was sentenced in second instance, last April, to more than 12 years in prison for receiving a luxury apartment in the seaside resort of Guarujá. , in San Pablo, as a bribe for promoting a construction company in public works, according to judges.

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In addition to former conservative president Michel Temer, arrested on Thursday in Sao Paulo, dozens of MPs, former governors and senior officials are also under investigation.

Two other former Brazilian presidents, Fernando Collor (1990-1992) and Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016), both dismissed by the Congress, are being prosecuted in proceedings also related to Lava Jato, while one-third, José Sarney (1985-1990), was accused of receiving bribes for facilitating contracts with a Petrobras subsidiary, but until the end of the year. now, he does not answer any lawsuit.

According to the surveys, the corrupt scheme has mainly operated around Petrobras, located at the center of the Brazilian economic boom of the last decade because of high oil prices. Many private companies have routinely bribed officials and politicians for contracts with the state giant.

The researchers later discovered that this modus operandi applied to other sectors, such as construction or food, where the Brazilian activity was developing largely through collusion with the political clbad.