How the scandal of Odebrecht marked the speech of the future president of Mexico



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After winning the presidential election in Mexico on Sunday, leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that "the eradication of corruption and impunity will be the main mission of the new government".




  Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico's future president, celebrates the victory in the country's capital

victory in the country's capital

The candidate's success and his anti-corruption speech conclude a campaign marked by denunciations involving Odebrecht in the country.

In 2016, Operation Lava Jato revealed the illegal payment by Odebrecht of 10.5 million US dollars to Mexico. In another case, the Mexican authorities are investigating an ethane gas supply contract signed between the state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and the consortium between Braskem, controlled by the contractor, and Idesa of Mexico [19659005] only in the first ten months of the year. agreement, in 2016 there was a gap of $ 98 million in the accounts of the Mexican state-owned oil company.

The losses are contained in a report of the Superior Audit Federation (ASF), a technical body of the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico that badyzes the public accounts that BBC News Brazil has access to.

Two weeks ago, one of the opposition parties, the National Action (PAN), filed a formal complaint with the Office of the Attorney General of Mexico (PGR). He showed what he viewed as "a criminal ploy designed and executed by a sophisticated network of corruption" to undermine "Pemex and the national economy" to the benefit of "an individual (the Braskem consortium"). -Idesa) and its government partners. .

With constant references to the operation Lava Jato, the complaint also accuses the current President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto; former president Felipe Calderón, who ruled between 2006 and 2012; and Jose Antonio Meade, candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), one of those who were defeated by Obrador in the last election.



  Andrés Manuel López Obrador voters accompany the speech in which he promises

Andrés Manuel López Obrador voters accompany the speech in which he promised "eradicate corruption"

Photo: Getty Images / BBC News Brazil

The named people are accused of illegally levying taxes on the importation of polyethylene, thus giving in to a contractual requirement of the Braskem-Idesa consortium [19659005] António Figueroa, coordinator of political badysis of the PAN campaign told BBC News Brazil that "these taxes undermine free competition by imposing barriers to this raw material that Brakem-Idesa also produces and sells". This action is characterized in the country's Penal Code as a "crime against domestic consumption" and provides for between 3 and 10 years in prison.

In an interview with BBC News Brasil in Mexico City, Braskem-Idesa's director of business development and institutional relations, Cleantho Leite Filho, called the complaint "an unfounded electoral policy". And he explains that the company suggested imposing a fee only to "balance the plastics industry, since polyethylene was the only polymer on which there was no tax on it". import."

In a statement, Jose Antonio Meade's campaign "

Despite several attempts at contact, the Mexican government and Pemex have not commented on the allegations of" unfounded attacks "and to be a" desperate action of the campaign of Ricardo Anaya ".

The case dates back to 2008, the year the government invited 31 Mexican and foreign companies to bid for the "Ethylene XXI" project

Mexico sought to increase private investment for the construction of a petrochemical product that would cover part of the polyethylene deficit, an essential product for the plastics, construction and cosmetics, among others.



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Demonstration against Odebrecht in Peru, the scandal s extends from Brazil to Latin America

In exchange, Pemex is committed to selling to the winning company 66 million barrels of ethane gas per day for a period of 20 years.

The consortium that Braskem Brasil and Idesa formed in 2009 finally won the bid. The investment of 5.2 billion US dollars began in 2016.

From the outset, the terms of the agreement between Pemex and Braskem-Idesa breached the accounts of the Mexican oil company . In the calculation of the ASF, the selling price of ethane, with discounts in the order of 30%, plus gas transportation costs, totally in charge of Pemex, resulted in a loss of more than 98 million US dollars throughout the year 2016. 19659006] ASF issued another warning: Pemex does not currently produce enough ethanol to fuel its petrochemicals and provide the volume of gas contracted by Braskem-Idesa.

This scenario confirmed the prediction of the former board member of Pemex Gasca Neri at a meeting of the board of directors of the state company. According to the minutes of April 23, 2011, Neri identified several critical points in the project "Ethylene XXI" – including the formula of the sale price and the lack of ethane – proposing to suspend and rebadess the project .



  The former president of the construction company, Marcelo Odebrecht was sentenced to 19 years in prison "src =" https://p2.trrsf.com/image/fget/cf/460/ 0 / images.terra.com / 2018 / Marcelo Odebrecht was sentenced to 19 years in prison and sentenced to 19 years in prison. imprisonment
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<p>  Photo: AFP / BBC News Brazil </small>
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<p>  Pemex's lack of capacity forces the company, now, to import ethane to fulfill its commitments. Over the next two years he will spend $ 231 million unexpectedly. If you do not do this, you run the risk of leaving half your petrochemical gas or paying Braskem-Idesa compensation of up to $ 300 million a year. </p>
<p>  Braskem-Idesa confirms that since the beginning of the project, "Pemex's difficulties in supplying ethane" have reduced the polyethylene production capacity from 10 to 15%. </p>
<p>  On the other hand, the director of the consortium, Cleantho Leite Filho, denies that there is "a certain preferential price of Pemex in the sale of ethane". "The price formula applied to Braskem-Idesa is the same as that used since 2013 with all ethane consumers in the country," he says. </p>
<h3>  Investigations </h3>
<p>  At the end of 2016, the Brazilian and US authorities announced that between 2012 and 2014, Odebrecht paid bribes of $ 10.5 million to Mexico. </p>
<p>  Luis Weyll, a former president of Odebrecht in the country, told Brazilian officials that bribes were paid to Emilio Lozoya in two stages: when he was international coordinator of the Presidential campaign of President Enrique Peña Nieto later, when Lozoya badumed the post of General Manager of Pemex. </p>
<p>  The charges were refuted by Lozoya's lawyers in several statements to the Mexican press. </p>
<p>  Last year, the organization "Mexicans Against Corruption" reported an alleged additional $ 1.5 million bribe under the Ethylene XXI project. This amount, according to the organization, was transferred by Braskem Brasil to the same account that Odebrecht would have used to make payments to Emilio Lozoya. </p>
<p>  Director Filho denies. "We did not do an internal investigation, we also hired external investigators appointed by the United States Department of Justice and we found nothing rigorous". </p>
<p>  "It is true that Odebrecht, who controls Braskem Brasil, has been involved in corruption in a number of countries, including Mexico.Braskem Brasil also acknowledged guilt in illegal activities, but only in Brazil, as American Authorities ". "Braskem-Idesa," he adds, "is a joint venture with its own management, has nothing to do with Odebrecht in Mexico." "</p>
<h3>  Long Process </h3>
<p>  A few months after the Brazilian authorities and the US Department of Justice included Mexico in the Odebrecht corruption scandal in Latin America, the Attorney General's Office of Mexico (PGR) began to investigate the case late 2016. </p>
<p>  In August 2017, Santiago Nieto, then head of the Special Prosecutor for Electoral Offenses (Fepade, decided to investigate the alleged Odebrecht's financing of the Peña Nieto campaign by Emilio Lozoya </p>
<p>  Three months later, on October 20, 2017, Santiago Nieto was fired Official reason: "violation of the Fépade Code of Conduct" by statements that he made to the Mexican newspaper <em> Reforma </em> in which he accused Lozoya of urging him to relieve him of any guilt in the Odebrecht trial [19659006TheelectoralcampaignwasalreadypendingandtheoppositionItaccusedthegovernmentofinterferingintheinvestigationoftheexecutiveandthePRRIthatallofthesaidinterpretationwastotheeffectthatthecountrywasguiltyoftheallegationofpresumptiononthewitnessthatithadnevertriedtointerveneinthecaseandthatitwasmorepoliticagem</p>
<p>  Since then, the Odebrecht case is exclusively in the hands of the PGR. In October 2017, the organization informed that the process was already closed. However, to date, no one has been charged. </p>
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  In Panama, the authorities investigate the role of Odebrecht in the fraud for metro offers "src =" https://p2.trrsf.com/image/fget/cf/460/0/images .terra.com / 2018/07 In Panama, authorities investigate Odebrecht's role in fraud for metro offers In Panama, authorities investigate Odebrecht's role in fraud for appeals of offers in the subway "width =" 460

Photo: AFP / BBC News Brazil

The silence of the PGR is strongly criticized by the opposition, badysts, anti-terrorist organizations corruption in Mexico and abroad, which require to know the conclusions of the process.

The director of Braskem-Idesa stated that the company also expects the disclosure of information. "As long as you do not know the details and do not confirm that we have nothing to do with it, the suspicion will always haunt us."

The scandal of Odebrecht has shaken several Latin American countries. In Colombia, Senator Bernardo Miguel Elias has been arrested; in Peru, the former president Ollanta Humala and his wife are suspected and placed in custody, and the pressure of the case finally forced the resignation of President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

In Ecuador, Vice President Jorge Glas also found himself in prison.

In Mexico, the stalemate persists – an additional controversy for Enrique Peña Nieto's term, and which provided the victorious speech of the elected president.

  BBC News Brazil
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