Latin American left rising? First stop Mexico for Argentina's Fernandez

Frank Jack Daniel. Reuters. November 4, 2019

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The prospect of a more united Latin American left grew on Monday after the incoming president of Argentina and his Mexican counterpart discussed reviving a regional diplomatic alternative to the Washington-backed Organization of American States.

Latin American countries have oscillated between left-wing and conservative governments, often with radically different economic and social policies, over the past few decades.

Since last year, anger at corruption, inequality and poverty have pushed conservatives out in Mexico and Argentina, while fueling protests in recent weeks that forced Ecuador and Chile to water down liberal economic policies.

Argentina’s president-elect Alberto Fernandez used his first foreign trip since winning office last month to proclaim a new era of leftist cooperation, in an apparent bid to demonstrate he will not be isolated despite South American neighbor Brazil’s right-wing government.

“I am determined to make Latin America united again, to again join forces to face the challenge of globalization in another way,” Fernandez told reporters in Mexico’s presidential palace after meeting with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Next year, Mexico will assume the presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, a regional body established in Venezuela during late President Hugo Chavez’s government that has lost influence in recent years.

“That is a chance to boost one of the organisms, one of the spaces for integration that have been forgotten recently,” Fernandez said of the organization, seen by some on the left as a future counterweight to the OAS, which they argue is a vehicle for U.S. influence in Latin America.

Mexico’s deputy foreign minister for Latin America lent credence to the idea of the region’s second and third largest economies working together from opposite ends of the continent to revive the grouping known as CELAC.

“Mexico and Argentina have in front of them the opportunity to promote the repositioning of Latin America in the world,” Maximiliano Reyes wrote in the La Jornada daily.

MADURO’S PRAISE
Apart from managing Mexico’s relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, Lopez Obrador has not taken a prominent global role so far, skipping events like the Group of 20 Summit and the U.N. General Assembly.

However, he has stepped back from his predecessor’s robust criticism of Venezuela’s current socialist leader President Nicolas Maduro - instead pursuing Mexico’s traditional policy of non-intervention in other countries’ affairs.

Under U.S. sanctions and declared an illegitimate president by right-leaning governments in the region, Maduro praised Lopez Obrador and Fernandez in a speech in Cuba on Sunday, calling them leaders of a new progressive front in Latin America.

“New winds are blowing,” said Maduro, who has presided over an economic meltdown and who is accused of abuses by rights groups.

Mexico and Argentina’s new foreign policy, combined with the protests and allegations of rights violations by Chilean security forces was “very good news for Maduro,” said David Smilde, a Latin America expert at Tulane University and senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America.

Still, when asked if he would pursue a stronger alliance with like-minded governments in the region, Lopez Obrador demurred on Monday, stressing he had a “very good” relationship with Trump.

When asked to comment on Maduro’s praise for him, Lopez Obrador again sought to occupy the middle ground.

“Not to show off, but the same thing president Maduro is saying, president Trump is saying.”

Different in style to Chavez, who reveled in verbal clashes with the U.S. “empire,” or jailed former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who felt at home on the global stage, Lopez Obrador was unlikely to announce himself leader of any bloc, said Mexican academic John Ackerman.

But the Mexican president’s return to Mexico’s non-interventionist stance was equally important and was acting as a “wall of contention” against those interested in meddling in other countries, said Ackerman, a constitutional law expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico who is close to Lopez Obrador’s administration.

“People said Mexico arrived late to the pink tide, and now it’s arriving early to the second pink tide,” said Ackerman, using a term that described the election of socialist governments in Latin America in the early 2000s.

“It’s not a straggler, it’s a leader of this new wave.”

Haiti Is Not “in Crisis.” Haitians Are Fighting for Governmental Accountability.

Cécile Accilien & Randal Maurice Jelks. Truthout. November 2, 2019

When Haiti makes the headlines of The New York Times, it is always in “crisis.” The recent story written by Kirk Simple is headlined “‘There is No Hope’: Crisis Pushes Haiti to Brink of Collapse.” However, the article fails to decipher just who and what is behind the crisis. Instead, Haiti’s citizens come across as simply some “ungovernable” and “irrational” Black people, just like those in many other majority Black, particularly African, countries are frequently depicted. This is a problem more broadly in American news outlets in their representations of Black-led nations like Haiti, and as media watchdogs point out, is not a new phenomenon.

Haiti’s representation is not fully contextualized as being a part of the ongoing democratic struggles occurring throughout the Americas — Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, the United States and Venezuela. Haiti is not alone in its “crisis.”

Haiti is one of the oldest democracies in the Americas. It is only three-and-a-half hours from the U.S. shore. The two countries share a long and complicated history, including the Louisiana Purchase that resulted in the western expansion of the U.S. This was a direct result of Haiti’s fight for independence from Napoleonic France. In 1804, Haiti became the first Black-led republic in the Western Hemisphere.

However, the United States has always been troubled by Haiti as a Black independent nation. This began with the country’s eradication of slavery. Further, most Americans are ignorant to the fact that the United States occupied Haiti from 1915-1934 and has been one of the country’s neocolonial overlords alongside France.

It’s only when it’s convenient that the United States, Canada, France and other powers claim that they do not want “to meddle in Haiti’s democratic process.” Yet there is a history of constant meddling by the United States and France in the support of corrupt politicians through fraudulent elections. In Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot has written that “the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present.”

For weeks Haiti has been on lock down, or peyi bloke, as it is called in Haitian Creole. There have been several statements by professors at the Université d’ État d’Haïti who have demanded that President Jovenel Moïse step down. Haitian political activists have consistently called for a thorough investigation into the more than tens of millions misappropriated from the PetroCaribe fund, an oil alliance and economic cooperation fund between Caribbean countries and Venezuela.

Cleverly, Moïse has asked for foreign aid for famine relief from the United Nations. However, many Haitians have concluded that this is a political tactic to protect himself from being held accountable. Unfortunately, Moïse has self-servingly played into the stereotype of Haiti being a “shithole” of a country. As a result of his political maneuvering, peaceful protests ensued to no avail before the current “crisis.”

In Haitian politics, politique de doublure refers to the various powers that control the country but hide their influence. Haiti, like the United States, is corrupted by a government whose only agenda is to serve the wealthy and foreign investors that include the United States, Canada and France — none of which seem interested in the actual lives of the Haitian people.

Haitians are not victims who are unable to speak for themselves. They have taken to the streets demanding governmental accountability. We stand in solidarity with all Haitian citizens who demand more transparent and democratic governing processes.

We also demand that the reporting by The New York Times and other news outlets provide more contextualization for the current state of affairs in the country. Haiti is not a racially exotic country; it is a small yet important Caribbean nation. It is a bellwether as to what is occurring throughout the Americas. We believe as scholars and intellectuals that responsible journalism must be employed when reporting on Haiti’s current struggles.

Amnesty International to Haiti president: End excessive force against protesters

Jacqueline Charles. Miami Herald. October 31, 2019

Supporters of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse want the Trump administration to help while those in opposition want the U.S. to stop supporting him as Haiti faces week seven of sustained protests. By House Foreign Affairs Committee

Amnesty International is calling on Haitian President Jovenel Moïse to guarantee the rights of Haitians who are taking to the streets to protest against his government, and to put an end to the use of excessive force by his security forces.

The human rights organization said Thursday that it has verified multiple instances of “security forces under the command of President Jovenel Moïse” using unlawful and excessive force, and it must end.

Amnesty said it verified the abuses by the 15,051-member Haiti National Police by reviewing videos of several incidents of police using weapons “indiscriminately and unlawfully, including launching tear gas out of a moving police vehicle ... firing on protesters with less-lethal ammunition at extremely close-range, and beating a protester.”

Amnesty said it also verified instances in which police, armed with semiautomatic rifles, fired live ammunition during protests, in violation of international human rights law and standards on the use of force.

While some of the protests have been peaceful, they’ve also turned violent, with protesters throwing rocks at motorists and Molotov cocktails at foreign embassies and government buildings, and blocked ambulances from crossing barricades.

The sustained anti-government protests demanding the resignation of Moïse are now in their seventh week. At least 35 people have been killed since Sept. 16, with the Haiti National Police implicated in many of the deaths, according to a report by the National Human Rights Defense Network (Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains). More than 200 people have been injured, including at least eight journalists, between Sept. 16 and Oct. 17, the human rights network said.

“Such incidents must be investigated promptly, thoroughly and effectively,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International. “President Moïse must take urgent measures to ensure people protesting against his government can do so safely, without putting their lives at risk. The police must stop using firearms carrying live ammunition in the context of protests and take particular measures to guarantee the safety of journalists covering the political and human rights situation in Haiti.”

Amnesty’s report echoes those of the National Human Rights Defense Network and other human rights defenders in Haiti who have accused Haitian authorities of launching tear gas into crowds and violating protesters’ rights. They also accused the government of using security forces that drive around in unmarked vehicles and hide their faces when quelling protests.

Hours after Amnesty’s report was released, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who told the Miami Herald last month that the U.S. should interfere with Haiti’s deepening political crisis, tweeted a warning to Moïse.

“Govt leaders in #Haiti should not confuse an unwillingness to interfere in their internal politics with tolerance for violence against protestors & journalists. They have an obligation to uphold the rule of law & will face consequences if responsible for human rights abuses,” Rubio said.

Haiti police did not immediately respond to questions for comments.

Last week during a hearing of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs on aid to the Caribbean and Latin America, Rep. Andy Levin, D-Mich., raised the issue of human rights abuses by the Haiti National Police, which has had some of its stations and vehicles set ablaze during protests and some of its own members marching against the government due to subpar working conditions.

Citing a recent Miami Herald article on human rights abuses and activists’ calls for investigation into excessive use of force, Levin asked Michael Kozak, the acting assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere at the State Department, if the agency had raised human rights concerns with the Haitian government.

Kozak said the State Department “generally” raises human rights concerns but its experience is that the Haiti National Police is one of the few institutions that “has been performing reasonably well.”

“It’s gone from being a very small organization that was really incapable of policing the place to now having the capability,” Kozak said about the force, which has been trained by the United Nations and is partly financed by the U.S. and other nations.

“Are there abuses committed from time to time? Yes,“ Kozak said. But he added the U.S. has been helping the police carry out internal investigations when allegations of abuse are made.

“We’re urging them to use those mechanisms to deal with the abuses when they occur,” he added. “It’s actually been doing a pretty good job of trying to control the unrest without committing [abuses].”

Levin, raising police handling and implication in the massacre that happened in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of La Saline last November, told Kozak he did not “share your sunny view.”

On Thursday, Port-au-Prince and other major cities remained paralyzed with barricades erected on roads and the opposition remaining firm in its position that Moïse needs to resign and it’s too late to hold a dialogue. It has been joined by other groups in society, including human rights activists, the Catholic Church, students and health professionals, all of whom are calling on the president to step down.

Haiti’s Office of the Secretary of State for Communication said Thursday that it was deeply concerned about the difficulties being encountered by many journalists and press workers.

“The Office of the Secretary of State for Communication denounces with the utmost severity all attacks against journalists and workers of the free press in a tumultuous situation,” it said in a statement.

At least 42 killed in Haiti protest violence: UN

AFP. November 1, 2019

Port-au-Prince (AFP) - At least 42 people have been killed and dozens injured during anti-government protests in Haiti since mid-September, the UN's human rights body said Friday, adding it was "deeply concerned" by the crisis.

The poorest country in the Americas has been roiled for two months by protests, which were triggered by fuel shortages but have turned violent and morphed into a broader campaign against President Jovenel Moise.

"We are deeply concerned about the protracted crisis in Haiti, and its impact on the ability of Haitians to access their basic rights to healthcare, food, education and other needs," the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a statement.

It said reports indicate that security forces were responsible for 19 of the deaths, with the remainder of those killed by armed individuals or unknown attackers.

Spokeswoman Marta Hurtado said some 86 people had also been injured in the violence since September 15. The majority were victims of gun shots.

At least one journalist was killed and nine others have been hurt, the UN added, calling for the freedom of the press to be respected.

After analyzing videos of the violence, rights group Amnesty International said security forces directly under Moise's command had committed some of the abuses.

"The security forces under the command of President Jovenel Moise have used excessive force. Such incidents must be investigated promptly, thoroughly and effectively," said Erika Guevara-Rosas, head of Amnesty's Americas department.

The group added that it had "verified instances in which police armed with semi-automatic rifles fired live ammunition during protests, in violation of international human rights law and standards on the use of force."

Amnesty added that they had also seen footage of police "launching tear gas out of a moving police vehicle amidst peaceful protesters, firing on protesters with less-lethal ammunition at extremely close-range, and beating a protester."

On Friday, video emerged on social media that appeared to show a police vehicle ramming a barricade where an unidentified man had taken cover last Monday. A few minutes later the clip showed an inanimate body being retrieved from the debris and carried away by locals who had tried in vain to rescue him.

At the time and date shown on the video, police had said they were carrying out operations to clear barricades in the neighborhood on the outskirts of the capital Port-au-Prince. Less than two hours after the unnamed man's alleged death, clashes broke out between locals and police.

"Two police officers were wounded by gunshots to the foot and ankle while trying to clear barricades in the Torcel area on Monday October 28 at around 1810 in the evening," police said on Monday.

Another police statement later said that local residents had "opened fire and thrown rocks at police, who responded."

- Angry opposition -

Since coming to power in February 2017, Moise has had to face the anger of an opposition movement that refuses to recognize his victory in an election widely seen as dubious.

Anger mounted in late August due to a national fuel shortage, and protests turned violent.

But even before this crisis erupted, Moise was accused of corruption.

An auditors' court probing $2 billion in aid from a Venezuelan oil fund found that companies run by Moise before he became president were "at the heart of an embezzling scheme."

The protests are spreading: In recent weeks, various professional or social groups have taken to the streets against the president one after another, such as university students and police.

OHCHR's report said most children had been unable to go to school since the protests began, while roadblocks and violence have meant particularly those outside the capital have had difficulty accessing "food, drinking water, medicine and fuel."

There is no dialogue under way with the opposition, and the already weak economy is starting to suffer.

Hurtado acknowledged difficulty in bringing the diverse groups together for talks.

What links a prison murder, a New York drug trial and the Honduras president?

Jeff Ernst. The Guardian. November 1, 2019

Despite several attempts against his life – poisoned food, a smuggled grenade – drug trafficker Nery López appeared calm as he spoke to the warden inside a maximum-security prison in western Honduras.

He hardly seemed to notice when a guard wearing a ski mask entered the hallway, eyeing López as he reached for the keys on his belt.

Moments later, the masked guard stepped aside from a heavy sliding door as a group of men in T-shirts and shorts burst in, one of them firing a handgun at López.

A second man drew a long knife, hacking at the fallen trafficker before the gunman drew a second weapon and emptied another cartridge of bullets.

Within hours of the 26 October murder, footage of the brazen attack had leaked on to social media, sending a shockwave of fear through the nation.

The killing came just days after evidence seized from López helped a New York jury convict a former Honduran politician named Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández on four counts of drug trafficking and related weapons charges.

Tony Hernández is the brother of Honduras’s current president, Juan Orlando Hernández – and Lopez’s lawyer was quick to accuse the government of complicity in his client’s murder.

“Juan Orlando [Hernández] silenced him,” said López’s lawyer, Carlos Chajtur. “That door opened on purpose.”

The murder is the latest embarrassment for the US state department, which continues to ignore the haze of allegations around the Honduran government while pushing the country to cooperate in Donald Trump’s regional crackdown on migration.

A week before the trial began, the two countries announced an agreement, allowing the US to send asylum seekers from third countries to the violence-torn Central American nation while their claim is processed. Similar deals have been drawn up with Guatemala and El Salvador.

So, while US prosecutors in New York described a situation of “state-sponsored drug trafficking”, the state department has maintained a business-as-usual approach following Tony Hernández’s conviction.

A day after the verdict, the top US diplomat in Honduras was photographed smiling with President Hernández at a military parade.

The Honduran president also featured in the New York case, when prosecutors accused him of having received millions of dollars from drug traffickers, including a $1m bribe from Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Prosecutors accused Tony Hernández of conspiring to murder rival traffickers, including a massacre with a bazooka and machine guns that resulted in four deaths.

President Hernández, who was re-elected in a fraud-marred vote in 2017 after the supreme court lifted a single-term limit, has denied all accusations of links to drug trafficking and maintained his brother’s innocence. “What can you say about a conviction based on the testimonies of confessed murderers?” he said on Twitter after the verdict was announced.

Opposition leaders have called for President Hernández to resign, but fear, division and a dearth of leadership have prevented sporadic protests from coalescing into a mass movement.

At the time of his capture in June 2018, López was living under an assumed name, after faking his own death a few years earlier by paying bribes to obtain a falsified death certificate and a new identity.

An opposition supporter holds signs reading ‘Together we will make history. JOH out’ and ‘Narco-state out’ at a protest in Tegucigalpa Photograph: Orlando Sierra/AFP via Getty Images
He was considered one of the largest drug traffickers in Honduras, so anti-narcotics agents were intrigued to discover hundreds of pages of records itemizing his business welded in a secret compartment in a vehicle seized in the arrest.

One of those agents testified at the trial of Tony Hernández that he had immediately spotted the former legislator’s name in the ledgers, which also list payments to a person identified as “JOH” – the initials by which President Juan Orlando Hernández is commonly known.

The Honduran government announced it is investigating the murder of Lopéz and has suggested an alternative motive. Deputy security secretary Luis Suazo suggested on Twitter that other traffickers may have had López killed because he was prepared to testify that the ledgers used in the New York trial were fake.

Critics argue that López was murdered to avoid any possibility that he might someday testify in a US court – and to send a message to others who might do the same.

“The first message is for those who are linked to drug trafficking in Honduras to show them that they or their family members will be murdered if they continue providing evidence,” said Dr Joaquín Mejía, a human rights lawyer who has studied violence in Honduras.

At Least 9 Members of Mormon Family in Mexico Are Killed in Ambush

Azam Ahmed, Elisabeth Malkin and Daniel Victor. New York Times. November 5, 2019

MEXICO CITY — At least three women and six children in a prominent local Mormon family were killed on Monday when their vehicles were ambushed in northern Mexico by gunmen believed to be members of organized crime, family members said. The attack alarmed a nation already reeling from record violence this year.

Members of the LeBarón family, American citizens who have lived in a fundamentalist Mormon community in the border region for decades, were traveling in three separate vehicles when the gunmen attacked, several family members said. They described a terrifying scene in which one child was gunned down while running away, while others were trapped inside a burning car.

Two of the children killed were less than a year old, the family members said. Kenny LeBarón, a cousin of the women driving the vehicles, said in a telephone interview that he feared the death toll could grow higher.

“When you know there are babies tied in a car seat that are burning because of some twisted evil that’s in this world,” Mr. LeBarón said, “it’s just hard to cope with that.”

Mexico has suffered a string of violent episodes in the last month, each as devastating and infuriating for citizens as the last.

Fourteen police officers were killed in the state of Michoacán in the middle of last month, in an ambush stemming from violent clashes in the state. Days later, cartel gunmen laid siege to the city of Culiacán in the state of Sinaloa, forcing the government to release one of the sons of the infamous drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera, after having captured the son hours earlier.

In both cases, the stark challenges of public security were laid bare, raising questions about the government’s seriousness in combating the spiraling violence.

But Monday’s brutal killings seem to have hit a new low, with infants, children and their mothers murdered in broad daylight. It threatened to become a galvanizing moment for citizens fed up with the endless bloodshed and the government’s inability to do much about it.

Details of the attack remained murky early Tuesday, as state and local authorities struggled to determine the extent of the violence, and how exactly it unfolded.

It was unclear whether the attackers intentionally targeted the family, which has historically spoken out about the criminal groups that plague the northern border states of Sonora and Chihuahua, or whether it was a case of mistaken identity.

Claudia Pavlovich Arellano, the governor of the state of Sonora, said that she would do everything in her power to ensure that the “monsters” who carried out the attacks did not go unpunished. “As a mother, I feel anger, revulsion and a profound pain for the cowardly acts in the mountains between Sonora and Chihuahua,” she wrote on Twitter.

Julian LeBarón, a cousin of the three women who were driving the vehicles, said in a telephone interview from Bavispe, Mexico, that the women and their children had been traveling from the state of Sonora to the state of Chihuahua.

His cousin Rhonita was traveling to Phoenix to pick up her husband, who works in North Dakota and was returning to celebrate the couple’s wedding anniversary. Her car broke down, Mr. LeBarón said, and the gunmen “opened fire on Rhonita and torched her car.”

She was killed, along with an 11-year-old boy, a 9-year-old girl and twins who were less than a year old, he said.

About eight miles ahead, the two other cars were also attacked, killing the two other women, Mr. LeBarón said. A 4-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl were also killed, he said.

Family members said several children were rescued, some having hidden by the roadside to escape the attackers.

“Six little kids were killed, and seven made it out alive,” Mr. LeBarón said.

The women had married men from La Mora, which is in the municipality of Bavispe in Sonora. The surviving children were being taken by helicopter from Bavispe, the town closest to the La Mora community, to a hospital, he said.

He expressed bewilderment over what could have precipitated the attack. “They intentionally murdered those people,” Mr. LeBarón said. “We don’t know what their motives were.”

One of the women even got out of her car, Mr. LeBarón said, and put up her hands. “They shot her point blank in the chest,” he said.

Mr. LeBarón said the family had not received any threats, other than general warnings not to travel to Chihuahua, where they typically went to buy groceries and fuel.

As he watched the helicopter fly off with the injured children, Mr. LeBarón said that perhaps the killings would finally spur enough outrage to force change.

“We need the Mexican people to say at some point, we’ve had enough,” he said. “We need accountability; we don’t have that on any level.”

The massacre came a decade after two other members of the LeBarón family were kidnapped and murdered after they confronted the drug gangs that exercise de facto control over the empty endless spaces of the borderlands south of Arizona.

A family member and other Mormons settled a town in Mexico in the 1940s; many of its residents speak English and have dual citizenship.

Kenny LeBarón said much of the family now lives in North Dakota, working in the oil fields and running their own businesses, but they frequently travel to the border area for holidays, vacations and other special events.

“We’re a huge family, but we’re very close,” he said.

Multiple family members posted a video, said to have been taken after the attack, showing a charred vehicle riddled with bullet holes, with smoke still rising from it.

Family members took to social media to implore the governments of Mexico and the United States to do something about the intensifying violence in Mexico, in particular in the areas along the country’s northern border, where Mormons and Mennonites have lived for decades despite the threat from rampant organized crime.

Many took particular aim at President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose government has struggled to articulate a coherent security strategy even as homicides mount and organized crime groups have carried out increasingly brazen attacks both against citizens and the state.

In the aftermath of Monday’s attack, the government deployed the newly formed National Guard as well as the military to the area to assist with the search for missing family members believed to have fled when they came under attack.

Peru judge orders 14 lawyers jailed amid Odebrecht probe

Al Jazeera. November 5, 2019

A judge in Peru has ordered 14 top lawyers to be jailed while they are being investigated for allegedly favouring construction giant Odebrecht in public-works contracts.

Judge Jorge Chavez said on Monday each lawyer will spend 18 months in preventive detention for participating in 42 arbitration processes that allowed the Brazilian conglomerate to earn at least $250m.

The lawyers rejected the accusations, and their defence teams appealed the ruling.

The order is the latest blow in the scandal involving Odebrecht which has admitted paying nearly $788m in bribes in 12 countries to win infrastructure projects in Latin America, including some $30m in Peru.

The scandal has also ensnared the past four Peruvian presidents who have either been jailed on corruption charges or are currently under investigation for fraud. In April, former President Alan Garcia died after shooting himself as police arrived at his house to arrest him.

Incumbent President Martin Vizcarra took power last year, promising to step up the fight against high-level corruption.

In October, Vizcarra dissolved the Congress, accusing the opposition-controlled legislature of blocking corruption investigations.

Odebrecht, the largest construction company in Latin America, was founded in 1944 in northeast Brazil.

Former chief executive officer Marcelo Odebrecht was arrested in 2015 and later sentenced to 19 years in jail for corruption. He has been under house arrest since 2017.

In 2016, Odebrecht agreed to the world's largest-ever corruption leniency fine with prosecutors in Brazil, the United States and Switzerland, paying at least $3.5bn.