With the Netflix original series “The Mechanism” airing its first eight episodes on 23 March 2018, viewers in the Dominican Republic were given a comprehensive overview on how difficult acting against corruption in Brazil has been. The series tells of the scandal that erupts in Brazil during an investigation of alleged government corruption via oil and construction companies. It is fiction inspired by real events and covers the Lava Jato scandal through 2014.
On the same day of the start of the Netflix original series, a news story in the local newspaper, Diario Libre on 23 March 2018, pointed how the prosecutor’s office in the Dominican Republic has very little to show for its investigations into who benefited from the US$92 million in bribes Odebrecht officials admitted to have paid to secure contracts for public works in the Dominican Republic from 2001 to 2014, spanning the governments of Hipolito Mejia (PRD), Leonel Fernandez (PLD) and Danilo Medina (PLD).
The Dominican Republic ranked third in the region for the total amount of bribes received in the Odebrecht scandals. Also the Dominican Republic has the dubious distinction of being the country that, perhaps unwittingly, became the headquarters for the administration of the bribes that affected many countries and governments in Latin America.
The Diario Libre news story highlights that already one president, one vice president and four former heads of government have fallen in other Latin American countries. In the DR, the list of 14 indicted by the local judiciary received privileged pre-trial arrangements and the Attorney General has extended the time it says it needs to investigate the 14 that have been accused.
Locally, those being investigated by the Attorney General Jean Alain Rodriguez are: Julio César Valentín, Tommy Galán, Alfredo Pacheco, César Sánchez, Máximo De Óleo, Andrés Bautista, Ángel Rondón, Víctor Díaz Rúa, Radhamés Segura, Temístocles Montás, Roberto Rodríguez, Ruddy González, Conrado Pittaluga and Bernardo Castellanos.
The Attorney General Office specifically excluded the largest Odebrecht contract, the Punta Catalina power plant, from the investigations. This power plant was contracted during the Medina administration.
Read more:
Diario Libre
Netflix
26 March 2018
