Countdown in the Odebrecht case

The list of Marcelo Odebrecht’s secret friends, as the opposition baptized the names of those bribed by the Brazilian company in Ecuador and 11 other countries, finds ways to be made public.

The clearest at this point: Brazil, whose Justice will lift the veil on information from January 20, 2017.

The impact of these revelations, part of an avalanche of allegations with which 77 representatives of the company abroad closed this week, threatens to turn the final stretch of the presidential campaign in the country to the debate on corruption that, until two weeks ago, occupied the second place in the citizen interest.

At the moment, the Brazilian Public Prosecutor’s Office has concluded with the massive interrogations of the Odebrecht representatives, focused on the reduction of their sentences. But the information must be kept as a reservation until it is sent to the courts of that country. The Prosecutor’s Office announced yesterday that it is already in the process of delivering the data.

The Brazilian Justice, in recess until January 20, will then have the green light to lift the veil and make public the information that includes names, schemes and a parallel accounting of the bribe department of the company, as reported by the press of that country, citing judicial sources.

This information is then presented as a ‘b’ plan for the investigation led by the US Department of Justice, which, according to statements of Ecuador’s ambassador in Washington, Francisco Borja, has promised the full delivery of the names involved when the investigation finishes in New York.

The Attorney General of Ecuador has formally requested information from Brazil, the United States, and Switzerland. But the information by regular channels could not have concrete data before the elections.

The Odebrecht case has become a speed race where the ruling party and the opposition struggle to get the names first. A countdown has already begun.