• Public opinion turns against Attorney General
• The Marcha Verde movement launches new actions

No matter if it rains or shines, the Odebrecht scandal in the Dominican Republic refuses to go away.

In 2015, the International bribery scandal caused a storm worldwide. It also reverberated in the Caribbean nation when names of several politicians linked to the current government and from opposition parties surfaced in the media.

As Esendom reported in August 2017:

According to Rodrigo Tacla, former lawyer for the construction firm Odebrecht, President Danilo Medina had close links with the embattled Brazilian company. In an interview published in the Spanish daily El Pais on July 27, Tacla states that Odebrecht organized parties for politicians in both Panama and the Dominican Republic. Tacla also alleges that Odebrecht would fly over “women from Brazil” as a way to thank politicians in attendance.

Danilo Medina’s government, under pressure from the anti-corruption Marcha Verde (Green March) movement, vowed to prosecute those involved while making sure he did not incriminate his allies and even himself.  Hoping that the scandal will go away and over time, people will forget, Medina kept mum on Odebrecht and corruption in general.

Fast forward to 2018 and Odebrecht is making headlines again. 

On June 7, the Dominican Republic’s Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez dropped a bombshell when he excluded eight of the fourteen suspects implicated in the bribery scheme.  Alain Rodríguez has come under fire for allowing Medina’s closest allies within the governing Dominican Liberation Party (PLD, for its Spanish initials) avoid trial. On the day after his announcement, members of the Green March movement, who are energized after recent events, set up an encampment in front of the Supreme Court’s headquarters.

Activists from the Green March movement are calling their encampment a “resistance encampment” against corruption and they are announcing more street actions in the coming days. On June 17, for example, the Green March will host a concert to spread the anti-corruption message in the Dominican Republic as abroad and demand that those implicated in the Odebrecht scandal pay a price. 

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