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The candidate's success and anti-corruption rhetoric ends a campaign of denunciations involving Odebrecht in the country.
In 2016, the operation Lava Jato revealed the illegal payment of 10.5 million US dollars by Odebrecht in Mexico. In another case, Mexican authorities are investigating a contract for the supply of ethane gas signed between the state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and the consortium between Braskem, controlled by the contractor, and the Mexican Idesa.
In the first ten months of the agreement, in 2016, there was a loss of 98 million US dollars in the accounts of the Mexican national 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 main 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.
the import of polyethylene, yielding to a contractual requirement of the Braskem-Idesa consortium.
António Figueroa, coordinator of the political badysis of the PAN campaign, told BBC News Brasil that "these taxes hinder free competition, 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, clbadifies the complaint as "an unfounded election policy". And he explains that the company suggested imposing fees only to "balance the plastics industry, since polyethylene was the only polymer on which there was no tax to l & # 39; import ".
In a statement, the campaign of Jose Antonio Meade clbadifies the charges of "unfounded attacks" and to be a "desperate action of the campaign of Ricardo Anaya", candidate of the PAN to the Presidency .
Despite several attempts at contact, the Mexican government and Pemex have not commented on the allegations surrounding the case.
The case dates back to 2008, when the government invited 31 Mexican and foreign companies to apply for the project "Ethylene XXI".
Through a tender offer, Mexico was seeking to raise private investment for the construction of a petrochemical company that would cover a portion of the polyethylene deficit, an essential commodity for the industries plastics, construction and cosmetics, among others.
In return, Pemex has committed to sell to the winning company 66 million barrels of ethane per day for a period of 20 years.
The consortium formed by Braskem Brasil and Idesa in 2009 ended up winning the bidding process. The investment of 5.2 billion US dollars began in 2016.
From the beginning, the terms of the agreement between Pemex and Braskem-Idesa opened a breach in 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. 19659018] ASF also issued another warning: currently, Pemex does not produce enough ethanol to supply 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 state board of directors. 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 .
Former President of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Educational Organization , science and culture (UNESCO), construction worker Marcelo Odebrecht was sentenced to 19 years in prison (Photo: Reproduction / TV Globo)
No one listened.
Lack capacity of Pemex forced the company, now, to import ethane to fulfill its commitments. In the next two years, it will spend $ 231 million unexpectedly. If you do not do this, you risk leaving half your petrochemical gas or Braskem-Idesa damage to up to $ 300 million a year.
Braskem-Idesa confirms that, from the beginning of the project, "Pemex's difficulties in supplying ethane" reduced the polyethylene production capacity by 10 to 15%.
On the other hand, the director of the consortium, Cleantho Leite Filho, denies that there is "some 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.
In late 2016, Brazilian and US authorities announced that between 2012 and 2014, Odebrecht paid bribes of 10.5 million US dollars to Mexico.
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 position of general manager of Pemex.
The charges were refuted by Lozoya's lawyers in several statements to the Mexican press.
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.
The director Leite 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". "Odebrecht, who controls Braskem Brasil, has been involved in corruption in a number of countries, including Mexico. Braskem Brasil has also acknowledged guilt in illegal activities, but only in Brazil, as US authorities." "Braskem-Idesa", he adds, "is a joint venture with its own management, has nothing to do with Odebrecht in Mexico". And he adds that "at no time was Braskem Idesa summoned by the Mexican or Brazilian courts to testify for any reason whatsoever".
A few months after the Brazilian authorities and the United States Department of Justice included Mexico in the Odebrecht corruption scandal in Latin America, in late 2016, Mexico's Attorney General's Office began to investigate the case.
In August 2017, Santiago Nieto, then in charge of the Special Prosecutor for Electoral Crimes (Fepade), decided to investigate the alleged Odebrecht funding of the Peña Nieto campaign by Emilio Lozoya.
Three months later, on October 20, 2017, Santiago Nieto was fired. Official reason: "violation of the code of conduct of Fade" by the statements that he made to the Mexican newspaper "Reforma", in which he accused Lozoya to put pressure on him to free him from any guilt in l 39; Odebrecht case.
The election campaign was already underway and the opposition accused the government of interfering in the investigation. Both the executive and the PRI have refuted this interpretation. In turn, Lozoya responded to allegation of presumed pressure on Fepade stating that he had never tried to intervene in the process and that everything was just "politicagem".
Since then, the Odebrecht case in Mexico 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.
The silence of the PGR is strongly criticized by the opposition, badysts, Mexican and international anti-corruption organizations, who demand to know the conclusions of the process. BBC News Brazil requested details from the RMP, but received no response until the report was released.
The director of Braskem-Idesa said that the company is also waiting for the disclosure of the information. "Until you know the details and confirm that we have nothing to do with it, the suspicion will always weigh us down."
The scandal of Odebrecht shook several countries of Latin America. 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.
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