Odebrecht Confessions
Kept under lock and key in Brazil since late 2016, the videos of the Odebrecht trial on Venezuela finally appear. As of today, Armando.info begins to publish a string of clips that show the faces of the witnesses who documented the case. Some of their statements had already been published on this platform, but here they go with the voice and tone of their protagonists.
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Considered
the key witness in the Lava Jato case in Venezuela, Odebrecht managing director
in Caracas, Euzenando Azevedo, collaborated with the Brazilian justice in
exchange for procedural benefits. He gave his testimony in the courts of the
State of Sergipe, northeast of Brazil, to avoid ending up in
jail.
It
was on December 16, 2016. Although a good portion of his words had already been
quoted on this platform, the videos were kept in Brazil's courts for a year and
a half. But the secret has just been broken and today, it is possible to meet
them in an effort of the Network of Structured Journalists, which joins together
journalists of IDL in Peru, La Nacion of Argentina, La Prensa of Panama,
Sudestada in Uruguay, and Quinto Elemento Lab in Mexico.
“Payments Were Made with Fictitious Contracts”
Odebrecht’s
bribes also reached Pdvsa Agrícola, and among the beneficiaries, Egly Ramírez,
founder of Pdval and uncle of former president of PDVSA Rafael Ramírez, stands
out. Marcio Faria, one of the senior managers of the Brazilian construction
company, confessed that on December 14, in an interrogation t in the courts of
the State of Paraiba, northeast of Brazil.
According
to the testimony of Faría, the subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela commissioned
ethanol plants, which –as already informed on this
platform– apart from
bribes and commissions, they did not even completed
them.
The
works were half completed in the states of Barinas, Cojedes, Portuguesa and
Trujillo. That is not the case of the disbursements to a Brazilian intermediary
called Osvaldo Basteri, who then distributed them to the entire board of
directors of Pdvsa Agrícola. "The payments to that man were made through these
companies, for which they used fictitious service provision contracts between us
and Osvaldo's companies," he said. "The payments were made through Hilberto
Silva [head of the Structured Operations Sector]. I learned that the amount of
the bribe was around 6% on the amounts received, not the ??contracted
amounts.
“We Were Able to Influence and Change Action Memoranda”
Odebrecht
managing director in Venezuela, Euzenando Azevedo, pointed to an intermediary as
a key player in the framework of Venezuelan corruption. His name was Luis
Delgado and coincides with his number two, Alessandro Dias Gomes, at the time of
pointing him out as an intermediary that allowed him to forge documents of the
governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. "I can say that he was efficient
because we had access. We have privileged access to drafts of action memoranda,
and we were able to influence and even change the
wording."
Although
Azevedo had a direct line with Chávez, the doors of the government were closed
when the president became ill. It was then that the intermediary appeared. "He
contacted me and said, ‘I know that you are having difficulties with the Metro
works. I have free access and can help you have the invoices pending
released."
“Intermediary Received 2% of the Payments”
With
Hugo Chavez ill, the Brazilians lost contact with the National Government.
Several accounts were paid late to representatives of the company, until they
found an intermediary who processed the payments in exchange for 2% of the
amount of the invoices.
"They
had not received the invoices for the Metro works for six months; hence, there
was a large list of overdue invoices. I agreed with him that he would receive
two percent of each invoice that he help us collect," confessed another manager
of the company in Caracas, Alessandro Días Gómes, in an interrogation in the
Brazilian courts of Sergipe, where the justice of that country summoned the
witnesses of the Venezuelan case.
His
testimony shows that in addition to overpricing and political favors,
Odebrecht's machinery included commissions to intermediaries and lobbyists to
expedite their payments.
“He gave me those Action Memoranda”
Odebrecht
managed to obtain the drafts of more than one Action Memorandum before they were
sent to former President Hugo Chávez, to adjust quotations and change amounts to
its benefit.
They
did it through an official named Luis Delgado, whom Switzerland linked with over
$ 40 million that ended up in accounts of the wife and the mother-in-law of
former Minister of Land Transport and former Metro president Haiman El Troudi,
according to another investigation published on this same
platform.
"Sometimes,
he gave the drafts of the Action Memoranda," said the company's manager,
Alessandro Dias Gomes, who first took charge of the works of Metro de Caracas
and then inherited the position of managing director in Venezuela, which
Euzenando Azevedo held for almost 10 years. "He gave me the drafts of the
documents. That allowed me to have influence over them by indicating that we
needed more resources in certain A or B work."
“He Received 100 Million Dollars”
Luis
Delgado was a kind of Trojan horse that Odebrecht found in
Caracas
to speed up payments within the Venezuelan Government and even to leak
information and documents that would later worked for the benefit of the
company. No wonder, between 2011 and 2015, he received and channeled 100 million
dollars in commissions deposited in an account of the Meinl Bank of Antigua and
Barbuda.
"He
received a total of around 100 million dollars over those four years," said
director Alessandro Dias Gomes. But that total was far from being for him. It
was distributed. "When payments were late, he said, "Press to have my payments
because that is not for me, I have a group of people waiting, and if they get
upset, it will adversely affect your
interests."
“Those works were paid with parafiscal funds”
In
Venezuela, Odebrecht was lucky to have direct access to former President Hugo
Chávez. No wonder, only in the Bolivarian Republic, an agent has the power to
dispose of oil surpluses without having to wait for the approval of the
Legislative.
This
was stated by the so-called viceroy of Odebrecht in Venezuela, Euzenando
Azevedo, who —among the other 78 "rewarded informers", who decided to
collaborate with justice— has become the key witness of the Venezuelan plot.
"These large works were paid or are managed through parafiscal funds that exist
in Venezuela in a different way than other countries," he said. "In Venezuela,
there are parafiscal funds that are administered directly by the President of
the Republic, and it is through these funds that the central government
allocates resources for investment in works."
“These works total 20 billion dollars”
The
more than 30 works that Chavismo
assigned to Odebrecht total 20 billion dollars, many of which were not even
concluded in the Venezuelan case.
Furthermore,
most were arbitrarily assigned. "Tendered at about 7 billion dollars and
directly contracted at about 13 billion dollars." This was said by the
representative of the company, Euzenando Azevedo, during his interrogation in
December 2016 before the Brazilian justice, in exchange for procedural
benefits.
The
first bid that the Brazilians won was to build Line 4 of the Metro de Caracas,
then the extension of Line 3 and the Metro de Los Teques, but from there, they
were directly awarded the most emblematic works of the Government. "President
Chávez hired us directly to make the second bridge over the Orinoco River. He
hired us later, when we finished the second bridge, to make the third bridge. He
hired us to build the Nigale bridge and then for some cable
cars."
“I will ask Caldera to let me contract”
The
so-called viceroy of Odebrecht in Venezuela, Euzenando Azevedo, went to the
Hotel Nacional de Brasilia for Hugo Chávez, on his first visit as
president-elect, to back down the contracts previously awarded to a Spanish
consortium to build Line 4 of Metro of Caracas. "I undertake to ask President
Caldera, as soon as arrive in Venezuela, to at least suspend the contracting
process for me to contract," the president promised.
That
was the first great success of Azevedo who gradually gained free access to the
Miraflores Palace. He arrived in Caracas in 1994 and since then managed that
Odebrecht moved from building the Lago Mall de Maracaibo to becoming the number
one contractor of the Bolivarian revolution.
No
wonder his position as managing director did not have a superior. The
jurisdiction of Odebrecht Vice President for Latin America and Africa, Luiz
Mamery, ran from Angola and Mozambique, to Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador,
Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and the Dominican Republic. But Venezuela was a
different matter, where Azevedo was in charge of Chávez.
“I collaborated twice with Rangel Gómez”
Odebrecht
collaborated on two occasions with the ex-governor of the State of Bolívar,
Francisco Rangel Gómez. "I collaborated twice," Azevedo told the Brazilian
justice. "He always undertook to ask to prioritize the development of our works
whenever he had high-level meetings with the Government."
The
same happened with several mayors of the State of Miranda, as it is the region
where the Metro Caracas-Guarenas-Guatire is still promised. In his testimony,
the "viceroy" of Odebrecht mentioned contributions to the campaigns of former
mayor of Los Teques, Francisco Garcés, and of his counterpart in the Sucre
municipality, the opponent Carlos Ocariz, as well as of the mayor Farith Fraija,
who won the Mayor's Office of Carrizal last year after being defeated in the
previous period despite of the economic support of the Brazilians.
“We Helped Diosdado Cabello”
Even
when there were no presidential elections, Odebrecht spent 3 million dollars to
support regional campaigns in Venezuela, and among them stands out the number
two of Chavez, Diosdado Cabello. "We helped, for example, in Los Teques
municipality, the candidate for governor, Diosdado Cabello," confirmed
Azevedo.
Opposition
leaders also stand out, like the former governors of the State of Zulia, Manuel
Rosales and Pablo Pérez, and the former metropolitan mayor, Antonio Ledezma, now
in exile. On the other side, Chavismo
financed the former mayor of Maracaibo Gian Carlo Di Martino, the former
governor of Bolívar, Francisco Rangel Gómez, and the current Minister of
Education, Elías Jaua.
There
is a particular reference to the former leader of the Un Nuevo Tiempo (A New
Era) party, William Ojeda, who was given money so that he would focus his
efforts on the newspaper Últimas Noticias. "We helped a journalist who was
always a candidate, William Ojeda, who had a very important column in the most
important newspaper in Venezuela. What for? To help him so that he did not
attack us in the newspaper ".
“I needed to be introduced to the candidate”
Odebrecht
collaborated 17 million dollars for the presidential campaigns of the opposition
led by former governor of the State of Miranda, Henrique Capriles. In 2012,
Odebrecht gave the first 2 million dollars and in April of the following year,
it contributed another 15 million.
The
approach began –as
it had been leaked in July 2017 on this platform– thanks
to a subcontractor from Odebrecht, close to Capriles, called Benito Rodríguez.
The first encounters took place at his home. There, the Brazilians only asked
not to terminate the contracts signed in the time of Hugo
Chávez.
"I
told him that I needed him to introduce me to the candidate," said the company's
managing director, Euzenando Azevendo, in his testimony before the Brazilian
justice. "After a week or a week and a half, he called me and I went to his home
again, and the candidate was there."
“I agree to give a contribution of $ 2 million”
Odebrecht’s
representative in Venezuela, Euzenando Azevedo, met three times with former
governor Henrique Capriles, according to the testimony he gave to Brazilian
prosecutors in the courts of the northeastern state of
Sergipe.
He
never talked about money with Capriles, but after meeting him, he agreed with
his representative, Benito Rodríguez, to make a first contribution in the 2012
campaign. "I agreed to give a contribution of 2 million dollars divided into
several parts."
The
second meeting, according to Azevedo, was in a room of the Pestana Hotel in
Caracas, to prevent Chavism from
knowing that the Brazilians were beginning to collaborate with the opposition.
"I arrived a little earlier, two hours before. I went to the apartment, then
they arrived and there he ratified his commitment that if he won, he would not
take reprisals."
“The governor wants to talk to you at his home”
The
most exciting encounter between Azevedo and Capriles was in the apartment of the
former governor of Miranda. That was stated in Brazil by the Odebrecht officer
before the prosecutors in the case. "Very close to the election, a week, he
called me and invited me to his home," he said. "I received a call from one of
his advisers saying, ‘Governor Henrique Capriles wants to talk to you at his
home and he set an hour, at night’."
Odebrecht
had already deposited 15 million for the 2013 campaign in bank accounts abroad,
according to the guidelines provided by the then representative of Capriles,
Benito Rodríguez. As a gesture of gratitude, the candidate invited Azevedo to
his home. "In a very affectionate way, he thanked me for everything I had done
and emphasized that if he won, he would not take any attitude against our
contracts," he said. "It is an honor to have received this from the President of
the Republic," he added after Capriles himself brought him a glass of
water.
“Chávez died in Cuba”
Sitting
on the defendants' bench, Odebrecht's key witness in Venezuela, its managing
director in the country, Euzenando Azevedo, narrated in December 2016 the
details of how the Brazilian construction giant financed the first electoral
campaign of Nicolás Maduro.
Then
he told the
story of how he processed 35 million dollars for an emissary of the United
Socialist Party of Venezuela. But, in the meantime, he
formalized in a Brazilian court what some already murmured in Venezuela, "Chávez
died in Cuba."
"Shortly
before, he felt he was going to die," he told the prosecutors in the city of
Bahia. "He appointed on national radio and television the then Vice President of
the Republic as his substitute in the event something happened to him on his
last trip to Cuba, from which he did not return."
“I had to contribute to keep the contracts”
It
was in Caracas, at Café Gourmet in Las Mercedes, where Euzenando Azevedo, the
former officer of Odebrecht in Venezuela, closed the deal with the Venezuelan
government official, Américo Mata, a key element in the Chavista framework, who climb steps to
the side of the Minister of Education, Elías Jaua, and three months ago left the
anonymity when the United States of America included him in the sanctions list
of the Department of the Treasury.
There,
in that café, –as
already leaked in July 2017 on this platform– the company
representative agreed to pay the 35 million dollars in exchange for a guaranteed
continuity of their works. "I had to contribute to keep the contracts."
Otherwise, it was uphill, he responded to the Brazilian prosecutors who
interrogated him about the financing of Maduro's first electoral campaign in the
courts of the Brazilian state of Sergipe.
“He gave instructions and we made the transfers”
The
transfers to Nicolás’ campaign were made to companies registered abroad. The
emissary of the Venezuelan president gave the guidelines and Odebrecht
immediately activated its so-called Department of Structured Operations, a
euphemism that the Brazilian company used to avoid presenting it as its unit of
bribes and commissions.
Maduro's
emissary, Américo Mata - later named "protector of the State of Miranda " - gave
the names of the companies and the rest of the work corresponded to the
Brazilians.”Systematically, he gave instructions and we made the transfers,"
summarized Azevedo.
He
did not specify, however, the names or information of the companies. Unlike
witnesses from other countries, in the case of Venezuela, there were few
witnesses in the interrogations and Azevedo, the main one, said he did not have
details about most of the companies and bank transfers...

Affidavit of Euzenando Azevedo, representative of Odebrecht in Venezuela
(*)This is a
work researched and published by the Structured Journalistic Research Network,
which includes journalists from IDL-Reporters in Peru, La Prensa of Panama, La
Nación of Argentina, Sudestada in Uruguay, Fifth Element Lab in Mexico, and
Armando.info in Venezuela.