MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
“Corruption in Argentina surpasses fiction”, and neighboring Uruguay is the “perfect Swiss laundry” for funds
The book topping Argentina's bestseller list is not a thriller or a murder mystery. It’s a crime story of another sort: a blockbuster about political corruption that suggests that bribery is an integral part of the country’s body politic. And neighboring Uruguay is also described as the perfect Swiss laundry for most of the money swindled from Argentina. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rules“It’s so bad that I am even scared my book will be used more as a guide for corruption than as a warning against it.”
Sep 28th, 2018 - 10:21 am - Link - Report abuse 0If this is true... then perhaps an even better seller would be...a Guide to Corruption...
Coima is a part of the monthly salary.
Sep 29th, 2018 - 12:08 pm - Link - Report abuse +2Corruption has been the norm from the very beginning in all of Spanish America, the norm in el Virreinato del Río de la Plata, in las Provincias Unidas de Sudamérica, and it is going strong in Argentina of yesterday and today.
When president Mauricio Macri was shown the famous photocopies of the notebooks of driver Centeno, he became enthused at the thought he had the smoking gun to finally nail Cristina Fernandez.
Sep 29th, 2018 - 07:04 pm - Link - Report abuse -2However, the president's available intellectual resources prevented him foreseeing the far-reaching consequences of disclosing the notebooks, which mention not only former officials of the CFK government, but Macri's friends and Macri family's interests.
Judge Claudio Bonadio initially decided to investigate crimes committed between 2008 and 2015. However, the information that surfaced was so copious, it forced the judge to expand the initial period to as far back as 2003.
The new period will include the IECSA company when it was still owned by the Macri family -- before being sold to Macri's cousin Angelo Calcaterra in 2007.
The new situation also forced Bonadio to call Techint's CEO Paolo Rocca and Marcelo Mindlin, owner of Pampa Energy on October 16 and 17.
The investigation, if properly conducted, could dismantle what in Argentina is known as La Patria Contratista (the Contractors' Fatherland), which began during the dictatorship of Juan Carlos Ongania (1966-1970) and significantly grew during the Rafael Videla dictatorship of 1976-1983. The group is a tight club of large construction companies that have been colluding to extort public money with help from corrupt government officials.
That, of course, would be much more than sought in the original plan, which was to just eliminate CFK as a potential presidential candidate in 2019.
“La Patria Contratista” sounds like the Petrobras corruption, practised by a “tight club of large construction companies”i.e, Odebrecht, OAS, Camargo Correia, Delta, UTC, etc - “in collusion with corrupt government officials”, from the PP, PT, PMDB, PSDB etc, “to extort public money”....EM, you've just described what the “Lavajato” is investigating. With the difference that it was not 'planned' to remove anyone from the 2018 election.
Sep 30th, 2018 - 04:57 am - Link - Report abuse +1@JB
Oct 01st, 2018 - 04:57 pm - Link - Report abuse -2Right on. With the difference, Argentina's Lavajato resembles little Brazil's investigation.
For starters, Odebretch's actions in Argentina have made little-if any-progress.
Secondly, the Macri government stated it wanted to avoid economic repercussions of the investigation, and is letting the companies off the hook by curiously stating that enterprises are not guilty of the actions of their 'employees,' as reported by MP Aug. 11.
Hey, the bribing companies not only have not been bothered; they keep getting public works contracts as we speak.
Executives named in driver Centeno's notebook photocopies, on the other hand, were given the option of naming CFK government officials or CFK herself to avoid being jailed. Those who did not were immediately jailed by diligent judge Claudio Bonadio.
I won't argue on whether putting candidate Lula da Silva in prison before the upcoming election was a planned part of the Lavajato in Brazil or not - the fact remains, it happened.
Perhaps it's just coincidence that the Argentine version of the Lavajato seems aimed to send Cristina Fernandez to prison before the October 2019 election.
After all, s....t happens, right?
@EM
Oct 01st, 2018 - 08:43 pm - Link - Report abuse +2Brazil's construction companies, as well as their executives involved in bribing politicians, have paid /are paying enormous fines; the Cos have been excluded from public tenders, and many are complaining they are being hurt by it....well, considering all the illegal profits they made, besides conniving with corupt politicians, serves them right.
If in Argentina, prosecutors are accepting plea bargains without proof, that isn't the case here. If the whistleblowers' claims cannot be substantiated by evidence, the promised benefits are cancelled.
Right, when the Lavajato started, Lula was not even a suspect...Try googling “A Cronologia da investigação que levou Lula à prisão” …Lavajato launched officially Mar/2014 (as a routine investigation into corruption); Oct ’14 Dilma re-elected (Lula optimistic about the future declares he’ll never run again); Investigations lead to Paulo R. da Costa, corrupt PB executive…he, ‘n Alberto Yousseff, sign plea bargains; June ’15 Marcelo Odebrecht convicted ; Aug 14 Jose Dirceu convicted; Nov '15 PT Senator denounces Lula & Dilma for corruption ; Mar 16 Lula accused ; Sep 16 Moro accepts accusations against Lula, and Dilma impeached; Dec 16 Lula accused for the 5th time - then he declares his intention to run for President in 2018 (visibly worried); Apr 17 Odebrecht accuses Lula, supplies corruption spreadsheets to L J investigators, authenticity confirmed by Swiss authorities; Jul 17 Lula convicted to 9 yrs in prison; Jan 18 TRF-4 confirms the conviction, raising the sentence to 12 yrs ; Apr 18, STF rejects Lula’s appeal ; Apr 18 Lula jailed.
As you can clearly see, 1) the Lavajato was NOT aimed at Lula, and 2) Lula only declared himself a candidate in the 2018 election AFTER the sh*t hit the fan, and he knew it was his only escape.
So yes, sh*t does happen, but in Lula's case not for the reasons the left would have us believe.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!