The US sanctions the former president of Panama Varela for “significant corruption”

The United States has prohibited former Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela Rodríguez from entering its territory for his “involvement in significant corruption,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken reported on Thursday.

“Today I announce the designation of former Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela Rodríguez as generally ineligible to enter the United States due to his involvement in significant corruption,” Blinken said in a statement released by the State Department.

“While serving as vice president and later president of Panama, Varela accepted bribes in exchange for the improper award of government contracts,” it added.

Last November, a Panamanian judge called two former presidents to trialincluding Varela, as well as other high-profile figures, for money laundering related to the Odebrecht bribery investigation, a sweeping corruption investigation that spanned all of Latin America.

The trial is scheduled to begin later this year.

Ricardo Martinelli, Panama’s president from 2009 to 2014, was cited, as was Martinelli’s successor and vice president, Varela, who was president until 2019.

Varela and Martinelli were prohibited from leaving Panama in 2020, when the investigations began. Both have denied having committed any wrongdoing.

Odebrecht and its parent company, Braskem BRKM5.SA, Brazil’s largest petrochemical firm, agreed in 2016 to pay $3.5 billion to settle bribery-related charges brought by US, Brazilian and Swiss regulators.

The public works contract bribery scandal spread to other countries where Odebrecht did business, including Peru, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia.

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