Brazilian bribers Odebrecht funded Venezuelan right

CORRUPT Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht funded opposition parties in Venezuela and elsewhere, its former CEO told Peruvian prosecutors on Wednesday.

Marcelo Odebrecht told a hearing the corporation paid off the Venezuelan Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition and other opposition parties across the continent to dissuade them from challenging corruptly-awarded contracts.

“Our intention was to support many candidates of the opposition, even knowing that they would not be elected,” he said.

“We supported them in some way because the opposition can also create problems.”

“One way to create a network is through support,” Mr Odebrecht added. “The way to avoid the opposition was precisely to attend to its campaign needs.”

Court documents show the corporation paid more than £70 million to Venezuelan “government officials and intermediaries” between 2006 and 2015.

Last June former Odebrecht Venezuela director Euzenando Azevedo confessed to depositing money in a private bank account belonging to hardline MUD-affiliate Justice First party leader Henrique Capriles.

Mr Azevedo said the funding the twice-beaten presidential candidate to “avoid putting all of our eggs in one basket” — after claiming late President Hugo Chavez was the main target of the company’s bribery efforts.

Mr Capriles denied those claims, and no charges were laid following his summoning for questioning by the Public Protectors office in January 2017.

Odebrecht is accused of paying hundreds of millions in bribes to government ministers and other officials across Latin and North America for lucrative contracts.

The corruption was first exposed by the Operation Car Wash probe into Brazilian state oil firm Petrobras.

Beneficiaries of Odebrecht’s largesse include current Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and opposition Popular Force party leader Keiko Fujimori, who were both grilled by prosecutors last week.

Last Thursday’s questioning followed Mr Kuczynski’s narrow escape in an impeachment vote over his pardoning of Ms Fujimori’s jailed father, former President Alberto “El Chino” Fujimori, sparking protests.

Critics called that a cynical bid to garner support from another opposition party led by Mr Fujimori’s son Kenji.

Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno has also used the scandal to dispose of his vice-president Jorge Glas, who was officially sacked on Wednesday following his conviction.

Mr Moreno’s Pais Alliance predecessor Rafael Correa insists Mr Glas is innocent and the victory of a malicious plot by the president.

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