Anger over graft-linked statue
Peruvians abandon ‘Christ of the Pacific’ due to firm’s bribery scandal
A towering statue of Christ spreading his arms over the city of Lima has outraged Peruvians ready to crucify three former presidents accused of taking huge bribes from the company that donated it.
Inaugurated with great fanfare in 2011, the “Christ of the Pacific” has come to symbolise the giant scandal around Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, which has admitted to paying US$29mil (RM128mil) in bribes in Peru in exchange for juicy public works contracts.
The 37m statue, inspired by Rio de Janeiro’s iconic “Christ the Redeemer”, was erected by Odebrecht on a dusty hilltop overlooking the Peruvian capital, fulfilling a “personal dream” of then president Alan Garcia.
Today, unlike its iconic Brazilian counterpart, it sits all but abandoned, unvisited except by the rogue protesters who have spraypainted its base with angry graffiti condemning both Garcia and Odebrecht.
“Alan is guilty,” says one. “Odebrecht get out,” says another.
It is a far cry from the lofty words Garcia spoke as he unveiled the statue six years ago.
“May this silhouette bless Peru and protect Lima,” said the centreleft president, who donated US$30,000 (RM133,379) of his own money to the US$800,000 (RM3.5mil) project.
The statue caused controversy from the beginning even in this predominantly Catholic country.
Lima mayor Susana Villaran complained Garcia had altered the capital’s skyline “from one day to the next”. The statue’s image has only gotten worse since then.
The same year it was erected, Odebrecht inaugurated Line 1 of the Lima metro system, a US$520mil (RM2.3bil) infrastructure project that finished more than US$100mil (RM444mil) over-budget.
The company has now admitted it paid a US$7mil (RM31mil) bribe to win the contract. Revelations of Odebrecht’s dirty deals in Peru emerged from a massive scandal in Brazil involving the state oil company Petrobras.
In a probe whose fallout is now being felt around Latin America, Brazilian prosecutors discovered Petrobras was bilked for billions of dollars over the course of a decade by corrupt executives, politicians and contractors.
Those contractors included Odebrecht, which turned out to have a secret bribery department that had been paying off politicians throughout Latin America for years.
Odebrecht agreed in December to pay a record US$3.5bil (RM15.5bil) settlement over bribes in 12 countries in Latin America and Africa.
Among the tell-all plea bargains to come out of the Brazilian investigation was one from Odebrecht’s former boss in Peru, Jorge Barata, who said the company paid millions of dollars in bribes there from 2005 to 2014.
Besides Garcia (Peru’s president from 2006 to 2011), former leaders Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) and Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) are also caught up in the scandal.
A judge last Thursday issued an arrest warrant for Toledo, who allegedly took US$20mil (RM89mil) in bribes.
Peruvian authorities have launched an international manhunt for the former president, who is believed to be in San Francisco.
Peru’s current leader, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, asked Donald Trump to consider extraditing Toledo when the two presidents had their first phone call Sunday, according to Peru’s state news agency.