Two former Panama presidents to face graft trial
A Panama court has ordered former presidents Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela to stand trial on charges of laundering money from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, a court document showed.
Judge Baloisa Marquines opened a criminal case against the two former leaders for crimes "against the economic order in the form of money laundering," read the trial summons.
The two men, who collectively led Panama between 2009 and 2019, will be tried alongside 34 others, including five former ministers. Two of Martinelli's sons-who are both imprisoned in the
United States after pleading guilty to receiving $28 million from Odebrecht-will also be tried.
The trial will run from August 1-18, 2023. "It is, without a doubt, a historical event," lawyer Carlos Barsallo, of the Transparency International NGO, said of having two presidents on trial for money laundering.
Prosecutors accuse Martinelli and Varela of using front companies and foreign bank accounts to receive funds from Odebrecht between 2008 and 2014.
In 2016, Odebrecht pled guilty in a Brooklyn court to paying more than $788 million in bribes to government officials and political parties, mainly in Latin America, to win infrastructure contracts.
The Brazilian company admitted paying bribes worth $59 million in Panama in exchange for contracts to build public works. Odebrecht built Panama's two metro lines, expanded Tocumen International Airport, and constructed Panama City's ring road around its historic old quarter, among other multimillion-dollar projects.
According to the Public Prosecutor's office, the company overbilled the Panamanian government for some projects. Varela and his rightwing Panamenista party stand accused of receiving $10 million from Odebrecht.
Varela, who led Panama from 2014 to 2019, denies the charges. Tade Balogun times his commute like a military operation.
Each day, the Lagos consultant leaves home before dawn, arrives for work early and takes a nap before before starting his day.
He then stays until 9 pm-that way, he escapes the chaos and gridlock that can transform his 29kilometre (18-mile) drive into a three-hour nightmare. By the time he gets home, Balogun says, his daughters are fast asleep. But, he adds wryly, his blood pressure has remained in the safety zone: "Lagos traffic can cause a health hazard."
Balogun's trek highlights the plight of Nigeria's economic hub and other fast-growing African cities as the world's population reaches the eight billion mark in the coming days.
In a metropolitan area sprawling across nearly 1,200 square kilometres (450 square miles), much of which has been informally settled, Lagos's 20 million people struggle each day with notoriously poor infrastructure, except for a few wealthy enclaves.
Arguably the worst problem is transport, for the city is dependent on roads-and they are a choke of cars, trucks, motorbikes and packed yellow Danfo minibuses, along with hawkers who weave in between the unruly lanes of traffic.
Seeking to change this, the Lagos State government has drawn up ambitious plans, including a new airport and a mass transit network of trains, buses and ferries.
"For the economy of any city to thrive, your transport system must be adequate, efficient," Lagos metropolitan transport authority chief Abimbola Akinajo told.