It \r\nwas not just bribes. At the height of its international expansion - which \r\ncoincided with the wave of progressive governments in the region in the early \r\n21st century -, Odebrecht pulled the strings of the political balance in Latin \r\nAmerica. And not the company but Marcelo Odebrecht, the so-called Prince of \r\nBrazil, personally oversaw that, for example, the Venezuela of Hugo Ch\u00e1vez \r\n\u2014after defecting from the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), which the country \r\nhad helped to establish 40 years before\u2014 was accepted with forceps in the \r\nSouthern Common Market, Mercosur.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
It \r\nwas an eight-month process with lobby meetings called by the top levels of the \r\nnow prominent Brazilian construction giant, even Marcelo Odebrecht. Already in \r\nMarch 2009, the Executive President of the corporation and top of the family \r\nbrought together his senior staff to plan an action to guarantee the entry of \r\nVenezuela into the natural field of the Brazilian economy, a move of \r\ngeopolitical nature that counted on stern resistance in the parliaments of \r\nBrazil and Paraguay. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
In \r\norder to overcome the reluctance in the Brazilian Senate, Odebrecht recruited \r\nthree key senators, Aloizio Mercadante, Antonio Palocci and Ti\u00e3o Viana of the \r\nthen ruling Workers' Party (PT), the party of former presidents Inacio Lula da \r\nSilva and Dilma Rouseff. This is evident based on the e-mails found in Marcelo \r\nOdebrecht's computer, collected on the pages assembled in the prosecutor's \r\noffice and the Brazilian Judiciary, as part of the Lava Jato \r\nOperation.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
Ch\u00e1vez \r\ngovernment, with its proclaimed Bolivarian vocation, embraced a pretension of \r\nhemispheric integration that would crystallize into different initiatives. Alba, \r\nCelac, Petrocaribe, and Unasur were some, and Chavismo<\/I> may be responsible \r\nfor their origin. But this doctrine gave rise to one of the positions that \r\ntransformed into a daring pirouette \u2014Caracas decided to break with the old \r\nAndean Pact and, above all, with a solid commercial trade with Colombia, to join \r\nMercosur.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
At \r\none point, leftist governments coincided in the four Mercosur capitals: \r\nBrasilia, Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Asunci\u00f3n. The scene seemed attractive to \r\nCh\u00e1vez, an ally - and in many cases, a financier - of those governments. But the \r\nsong of the progressive sirens led the Venezuelan leader to run aground on a \r\nstalemate. In spite of all the sponsorships, after three years of negotiations, \r\nVenezuela was no more than a figure with voice but no vote in Mercosur. The \r\nexpress channel towards the membership that the Venezuelan leader may have \r\nimagined was blocked. Six years passed before being \r\nadmitted.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n
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