Sardines caught sharks swim free

In the Odebrecht case, those who pay or have paid for their criminal behavior are the sardines and the odd fish. But the white sharks continue to frolic, happy as if they know something that we do not know … but that we suspect. At some silly moment in my life, I had the hope that Odebrecht could be the lesson of our political class. The facts prove the opposite. They are more concerned about getting a ballot for being badly parked than about receiving a conviction for stealing millions.

Going into that case, one can see with absolute clarity and certainty that there is enough evidence for a good number of people to be convicted. And some more than others, because they did not know how to cover themselves well. But there are those who acted as if Panama were the garden of their crops. And still, this week I could see how, despite this, there are people asking that some of them return to the country. I am sure that everything, absolutely everything that is against him, is useless against the power of a few thousand dollars in the market of consciences.

And this government. There is no doubt that he has learned from the teacher he taught over there in the 1990s. Before, his politicians worked two to three years, and the last two years of the presidential term were spent raising the money they would need for when they lost the elections. That is history. Now they steal from before coming to power. From a neighborhood house to an apartment of millions; from being a middle-class professional to an affluent politician.

I once read of a businessman who paid bribes for works that the government gave him that he was not going to reach out, that he had never had a need to offer anything before. Until one time he won a fair bid, and the politicians asked him for money.

 So one wonders, why does a company that genuinely won a public act have to pay bribes? The answer lies in the bureaucracy. There are fees for the order to proceed; addenda; meetings with the person in charge of the work; for shortening control procedures; for the release of payments; for lobbyists, intermediaries, inspectors, and even the well-groomed.

For this reason, to a work that in the public sector costs $4 million net, surely we must add the cost of satisfying the voracity of officials who are in line waiting to receive their share of the pie. Then, that work is costing $6 million, which is also enough to subcontract to a third party that is in charge of dealing with the happy project.

And that’s what Odebrecht did. He just waited – and not long – until there was a knock on his door. It is the ancestral Panamanian way of doing business in the State. And that hasn’t changed one iota. That is the truth, pure and painful. I swear by the Gordito del Zodiaco award, by the PPC concession, by the Molejón gold, by the NG Power plant and by the two Covid hospitals  – Rolando Rodriguez, LA PRENSA, Jun. 5.