Support for the Anti-Corruption March set for Sunday, 22 January 2017 is increasing as the media follows the Odebrecht saga in the Dominican Republic. In the latest development, the lobbyist who secured the contracts has said that the Odebrecht has described the US$92 million as bribes to Dominican government officials in return for securing US$163 million worth of contracts were his fees for securing contract work and payments for the company.
The march is being promoted by campaigning groups and civil society organizations that seek to demand a full government investigation into the Odebrecht bribe case.
The organizations include Foro Ciudadano, Poder Ciudadano, Somos Pueblo, Centro Juan XXIII, Comision Nacional de Derechos Humanos, Bloque Popular, Movimiento de Trabajadores Independientes, Movimiento de Mujeres Trabajadoras, Comité Codiano, Corriente Magisterial Juan Pablo Duarte, Feflas, Los Peregrinos de Moca, Juventud Caribe, FAPROUASD, La Multitud, Frente Universitario Renovador, and Grupo Milenio Verde (MIVER).
The march is scheduled to start at 10am at the intersection of Máximo Gómez and 27 de Febrero avenues ending at the Presidential Palace via Dr. Delgado Street in Santo Domingo.
Lawyer urges citizens to pressure for end to impunity
Writing in El Dia, columnist Carlos Salcedo encourages citizens to join the protest to demand an end to administrative corruption in the country. He writes: “The leaking of information and the judicial processes open at an international level have put our country on the list of countries where the company had operations, with specific names of individuals involved in these acts being revealed.
“Two things can happen to continue the usual chain of impunity, with or without judicial processes, with the consequential increase in lack of trust in the institutions and the democratic system itself, or, if citizen pressure and judicial responsibility, bring about transparent processes with serious penalties for the overt and covert players and an effective recovery of the resources used to pay the bribes. This is the only way in which we can show the example of a system that does not pardon those who through corruption bleed the state of its resources.”
Read more in Spanish:
El Dia
Diario Libre
13 January 2017
