Odebrecht case to test Dominican Republic’s Teflon politicos

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic’s politicos have again managed without major trauma to surmount a major case such as Odebrecht’s, considered the continent’s biggest international corruption scandal, which in its various stages has swept two presidents away and has brought three to court.

However, it has been endured for more than a year amid a political storm that has no end in sight.

The Justice Ministry has the challenge of unsealing the indictment within 12 days against those who will finally be charged with taking the bribes that the Brazilian construction company admitted having paid to obtain major public works contracts.

The deadline issued by Supreme Court Justice, Francisco Ortega, to unseal the indictment expires on June 9.

The doubt which the Justice Ministry must dispel is what evidence has it managed to gather to support an accusation, especially noting that the first request for an arrest warrant was based on the depositions by Odebrecht executives in Brazil, but which they haven’t provided to Dominican Justice.

On May 29, 2017, the Justice Ministry accused 14 people -mostly politicians- of having taken bribes from Odebrecht.