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News > Latin America

Odebrecht Denies Paying FARC to Build in Rebel-Controlled Zones

  • The Brazilian company Odebrecht, whose former CEO is in prison for corruption, denied any financial transaction with the FARC.

    The Brazilian company Odebrecht, whose former CEO is in prison for corruption, denied any financial transaction with the FARC. | Photo: Reuters

Published 6 March 2017
Opinion

The announcement comes as a Brazilian magazine alleged the company funded the Colombia's currently-demobilizing guerrilla army.

Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht denied allegations that it gave thousands of dollars over the past 20 years to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to guarantee and safeguard its operations in Colombia. 

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The Brazilian magazine Veja reported without evidence that Odebecht officials paid bribes in order to carry out operations in the areas controlled by the FARC. But the company, caught up in a major international corruption scandal, has responded saying that the allegations are false. 

"Odebrecht denies this information and states that the affirmation of Veja's report, according to which the company would have made payments to a Colombian guerrilla group, is speculation," said the firm in a statement.

According to Veja, two company executives admitted to the attorney general that payments of between US$50,000 and US$100,000 per month were handed out to the guerrilla army. The report alleged that the company paid these "guerrilla taxes" in exchange for "permits" to complete projects in territories controlled by the rebels.

The FARC also denied Monday having knowledge of payments from Odebrecht. 

"The same company has clarified that none of this happened and the insurgency never had knowledge of that," FARC leader Antonio Muñoz, also known by the alias Pastor Alape, said in a press conference. 

Colombian lawmakers have called for authorities to investigate the allegations that Odebrecht paid 

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Odebrecht officials have been found guilty of leading a worldwide bribery scheme paying millions to "intermediaries" to secure contracts in a dozen countries.

Imprisoned since June 2015 in Curitiba, Marcelo Odebrecht, CEO of the company reached an agreement with legal authorities, in which he presented a list and figures of politicians and business figures his company bribed to receive a reduced sentence.

Brazilian president Michel Temer and several close allies and members of his Cabinet are involved in the corruption investigation, which has targeted politicians who benefited from bribery networks operating through the state-run oil company Petrobras.

In Colombia, after the FARC and the government finalized a definitive peace deal last year, the guerrilla group left its jungle camps and started the process of handing over weapons to demobilize and transition into a political party. 

Right-wing politicians, headed by former President Alvaro Uribe, have been accused of organizing an international media campaign to undermine the peace process in the country.

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