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LatinNews Regional Monitor: Caribbean & Central America - 16 February 2017

PANAMA: Varela on defensive over Odebrecht scandal

President Juan Carlos Varela was recently forced to deny having received money from Odebrecht, the Brazilian engineering company which pleaded guilty in a US federal court to bribery in December 2016 and is the subject of major corruption investigations in Brazil, the US and other countries in the region. According to the US Department of Justice (DoJ), more than US$59m was paid in bribes in Panama to secure public works and infrastructure contracts valued at US$175m between 2010 and 2014. While this took place under the previous Cambio Democrático (CD) administration led by Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014), incendiary remarks by a former Varela ally has left the unpopular President scrambling to provide reassurances regarding his commitment to transparency.

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