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A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 8 July 2017

Brazilians questioning whether big probe will end corruption

By SARAH DiLORENZO cians, President Michel
PETER PRENGAMAN Temer was holding an off-
Associated Press the-books meeting at his
SAO PAULO (AP) — For home to set in motion his
three years, Brazilians have own plot to provide favors
become used to waking for $11.6 million in bribes,
up to images of top politi- according to an indict-
cians or captains of indus- ment filed by the attorney
try being perp-walked to general.
police cars, the result of an Temer denies the allega-
ever-widening investiga- tion that he arranged with
tion into the sale of favors Joesley Batista, then chair-
by the political elite that man of major meatpacker
led to charges against the JBS, to receive monthly
president. payments in exchange for
What began as a probe helping the company get
of money laundering has favorable government de-
sprawled into a mega- cisions. The two also alleg-
scandal, primarily uncov- edly discussed buying the
ering a scheme by con- silence of a jailed former
struction companies to lawmaker who Temer ap-
overcharge in contracts parently feared could im-
with the state oil company. plicate him.
It has seen dozens of politi- In this Oct. 20, 2016 photo, Eduardo Cunha, former speaker of Brazil’s lower house, is escorted In another worrying sign,
cians and business execu- by federal police officers as he arrives to the Legal Medical Institute, in Curitiba, Brazil. Cunha, members of Congress tried
who spearheaded the ouster of President Dilma Rousseff, was arrested as part of a sprawling graft
tives put in prison and un- probe involving state oil giant Petrobras. A key ally of new President Michel Temer, Cunha is ac- late last year to pass mea-
covered graft at a variety cused of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion related to an oilfield purchase that Petro- sures that would make it
of major infrastructure proj- bras made in 2011 in the west African nation of Benin, among a series of other charges. harder to prosecute cor-
ects, including in contracts (AP Photo/Denis Ferreira) ruption, including propos-
for the Rio Olympics. als to grant themselves am-
Many Brazilians hoped the ing a dent. can University and a fellow There are signs the forces nesty and introduce pen-
“Operation Car Wash” in- “There is this real tension at the Council on Foreign for impunity won’t give up alties for prosecutors and
vestigation would finally here between the forces Relations. “Brazil has been without a fight. judges who overreach. Yet
put an end to the coun- of impunity in Brazil and the through an accountability On the same day in March another came this week,
try’s long culture of corrup- forces that are trying to get spurt, but it’s hard to know that construction company when the federal police
tion. But they increasingly rid of that impunity,” said whether that spurt turns into executives were testifying shut down the primary task
question whether the big- Matthew Taylor, a profes- a major shift in account- to a federal court about a force assigned to the Car
gest corruption probe in sor at the School of Inter- ability in Brazil or whether it sprawling scheme to buy Wash probe, saying the of-
Brazil’s history is really mak- national Service at Ameri- just peters out.” favors from Brazil’s politi-
ficers would be rolled into
an already existing division
EU banks exit Honduras dam project after killings that investigates corrup-
tion.
“Brazilians are so tired of
By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Industrial Cooperation said whether they want the considered sacred by Ca- not seeing the corruption
Associated Press in a joint statement Thurs- project. ceres’ Lenca people. change,” said Paulo Alen-
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two day that the decision to “The lenders’ exit from the Two weeks later another tajano, a geography pro-
European development halt their involvement in project is intended to re- activist from her indige- fessor who participated in
banks financing construc- the Agua Zarca dam was duce international and lo- nous organization known a recent anti-Temer dem-
tion of a controversial dam reached after extensive lo- cal tensions in the area,” it as Copinh, Nelson Garcia, onstration. “We protest
project in Honduras have cal and international con- read. was killed. And last July the and yet for these politicians
pulled out following the sultations. The statement Caceres, a 40-year-old body of another Copinh it’s business as usual. Brazil
murders of local activists said the banks believe the activist who was award- activist, Lesbia Janeth has a long way to go.”
including Berta Caceres, dam would be a positive ed the Goldman prize for Urquia, was found. One problem in such in-
a 2015 winner of the pres- development for nearby leading a years-long fight Among those arrested in vestigations is Brazil’s two-
tigious Goldman Environ- communities and the Cen- against the dam, was killed Caceres’ killing was a secu- tiered judicial system —
mental Prize. tral American nation. They in March 2016 by gunmen rity employee working on one track for senior politi-
The Netherlands Develop- expressed hope that a dia- who invaded her home. behalf of dam developer cians, another for every-
ment Finance Institution logue will emerge in which The dam was to be built Desarrollos Energeticos SA, one else. q
and the Finnish Fund for local stakeholders decide on the Gualcarque River, or DESA.q