GROWING

AMERICAS
13
SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017
OMANDAILYOBSERVER
ELECTION CAMPAIGN RALLY
Former admiral
rejects Trump’s
offer to be top
security adviser
CREO party presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso, vice-presidential candidate Andres Paez and Lasso’s wife Maria de Lourdes attend a closing campaign rally in
Guayaquil, Ecuador. — Reuters
Call to investigate Odebrecht’s partners
LIMA: An ombudsman on Thursday
called for prosecutors to investigate
Peruvian builder Grana Montero and
other partners of Brazil’s construction
conglomerate Odebrecht in a
corruption probe that has already
sunk Grana’s shares.
Grana, Peru’s biggest engineering
conglomerate and Odebrecht’s most
important partner in Peru, has
repeatedly denied having known
about $29 million in bribes that
Odebrecht has said it distributed in
Peru from 2005 to 2014.
But ombudsman Walter Gutierrez,
whose office defends the interests
of the public, said Grana cannot be
taken at its word.
“If I’m your partner, I know about
the financial status and relevant
actions of the business... how could I
not know, or at least have a suspicion”
if bribes were paid, Gutierrez said at a
press conference with foreign media.
“They should be investigated.”
The comments added to growing
calls from lawmakers for Grana to
be included in an investigation into
Odebrecht’s past kickback schemes
Thousands march against corruption through the streets of downtown Lima on
Thursday. — AFP
after Odebrecht promised to provide
prosecutors with relevant testimony
and documents.
Grana said it was not under
investigation but would cooperate
fully if needed to help prosecutors
with their work or to clear up doubts.
“We’ve instructed our lawyers to
study this case deeply and determine
next steps. We’ve asked that
whatever we do that our willingness
to collaborate with the state... be
respected,” Grana said in a statement.
The value of Grana’s shares have
dropped about 37 per cent since
Odebrecht signed a settlement with
US prosecutors that made public
bribes that Odebrecht admitted to
distributing across Latin America.
Grana was Odebrecht’s junior
partner on several projects that
are now under investigation: Two
highway contracts awarded in 2005,
a metro line it still operates and a
natural gas pipeline contract that the
government revoked last month after
financing got snagged on corruption
concerns.
Prosecutors have accused former
president Alejandro Toledo of
taking $20 million in bribes to help
Odebrecht win the highway contracts.
Toledo has not been convicted of any
crimes and has denied wrongdoing.
He is being sought by authorities.
Grana owns a minority stake
in Odebrecht’s stalled irrigation
project Chavimochic III, which the
government wants Odebrecht to exit.
Odebrecht has said it was willing to
sell off its remaining contracts with
Peru amid calls from the government
to leave. — Reuters
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s
reported pick for national security
adviser turned down the job just hours
after the president defended the ousted
Michael Flynn, saying he “wasn’t
wrong” for dealing with Russia.
Retired Navy Admiral Robert
Harward’s rejection of the key post late
on Thursday leaves Trump without a
replacement for Flynn, the first high
profile casualty of the US leader’s
tenure, and it added to a perception of
disarray in his administration.
Harward told CNN he bowed
out because of family and financial
commitments, but several US media
outlets reported that he was unhappy
because he had no guarantees that the
National Security Council — and not
Trump’s political advisers — would be
in charge of policy.
Members of the council currently
include Steve Bannon, Trump’s
controversial far-right former
campaign manager.
One Harward friend told CNN that
he didn’t want the job because of chaos
at the White House.
Flynn, a close adviser on Trump’s
2016 campaign, resigned after it
was revealed that he held telephone
conversations during the election
race with Russia’s ambassador in
Washington about US sanctions.
Flynn was no stranger to
controversy. His past included a paid
appearance at a 2015 dinner sitting
next to President Vladimir Putin
and suggestions that Russia’s seizure
of Crimea and its support for Syrian
leader Bashar al Assad were acceptable.
Russia was the hot topic of a lengthy
and often rambling press conference
given by Trump on Thursday.
The president insisted neither he
nor his campaign team had contacts
with Russian officials in the run-up to
last year’s US election, contradicting an
explosive report which he dismissed as
“fake news.”
Trump instead accused members
of US intelligence agencies of breaking
the law by leaking information about
the calls.
Asked whether he or anyone on
his staff had engaged in contacts with
Robert Harward. — AFP file photo
Retired Navy Admiral
Robert Harward’s
rejection of the key
post late on Thursday
leaves Trump without a
replacement for Flynn,
the first high profile
casualty of the US
leader’s tenure, and it
added to a perception
of disarray in his
administration
Russia prior to the election, Trump
proclaimed: “No, nobody that I know
of.” “I have nothing to do with Russia,”
Trump said. “The whole Russia thing is
a ruse.”
It was a full-throated denunciation
of a bombshell New York Times report
which said intercepted calls and
phone records show Trump aides
were in repeated contact with Russian
intelligence officials well before the US
election.
“It’s all fake news,” Trump insisted.
He stressed that the Times story
centred instead on inappropriate
action by US intelligence agencies, and
he stepped up earlier attacks vowing to
catch “low-life leakers” of potentially
classified information that led to
Flynn’s ouster. — AFP
Eateries shut down to show
support for immigrants
WASHINGTON: From burger
joints to posh eateries, scores of
Washington restaurants shut down
on Thursday as part of a protest with
echoes across the United States
against President Donald Trump’s
treatment of immigrants.
Some restaurants on the “Day
Without Immigrants” closed out of
solidarity with the largely lowearning
people who staff them, a
strike meant to show how important
foreign born workers are to the
economy. Others shuttered because
not enough staff showed up to
work in the immigrant-dominated
restaurant industry.
From New York to Los Angeles,
immigrants stayed home from work,
kept their kids out of school, avoided
buying gas and otherwise tried to
illustrate the cost to America of going
a day without them. One museum in
Massachusetts removed all artworks
created or donated by immigrants.
A sign on a shuttered salad shop
called Sweetgreen, a short walk from
the White House, explained what it is
all about. All 18 Sweetgreen shops in
Washington closed for the day.
“The three of us are sons of
immigrants,” the trio of co-founders
wrote. “We respect our team
members’ right to exercise their voice
in our democracy.”
Edward Burger, 84, a retired
doctor, stood reading that sign and
said the protest was a great idea.
“This question of immigrants and
the hospitality of the United States is
terribly important, both for them and
for us,” said Burger.
Trump has just taken up
residence in a staunchly Democratic
town: Hillary Clinton won more
than 90 per cent of the votes in the
presidential election.
The mix of protest, boycott and
strike comes as acute fear spreads
mainly in Latino communities
across the United States because of
raids that have led to the arrest of
hundreds of people without legal
status to live in the US.
Some have been summarily
deported as Trump says he is making
good on a campaign promise to get
rid of unauthorized immigrants.
Anger also remains over his
now-suspended ban on entry of all
refugees and people from seven
mainly Muslim countries.
The immigration raids prompted
the idea of a protest, which spread
quickly by word of mouth in the
nation’s capital. Altogether, some 70
restaurants closed in Washington —
from fast food joints in a Pentagon
food court to restaurants in mainly
Hispanic neighbourhoods to chic
shopping streets near the White
House and Capitol Hill. — AFP
Venezuela oppn parties fear election ban
ARACAS: Venezuela’s government
is pushing forward with measures
that could exclude some opposition
political parties from future elections,
potentially paving the way for the
ruling Socialists to remain in power
despite widespread anger over the
country’s collapsing economy.
The Supreme Court, loyal to
socialist president Nicolas Maduro,
has ordered the main opposition
parties to “renew” themselves through
petition drives whose conditions are
so strict that party leaders and even
an election official described them as
impossible to meet.
Socialist Party officials scoff at the
complaints. They say anti-Maduro
candidates would be able to run under
the opposition’s Democratic Unity
coalition, which has been exempted
from the signature drives, even if the
main opposition parties are ultimately
barred. But key socialist officials
are also trying to have the coalition
banned, accusing it of electoral fraud.
Government critics point to this
and the “renewal” order as signs the
socialists are seeking to effectively run
uncontested in gubernatorial elections
and the 2018 presidential vote.
Investors holding Venezuela’s
high-yielding bonds had broadly
expected Maduro to be replaced with
a more market-friendly government
Mitzy Capriles de Ledezma (R), wife of the Mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma and the wife of jailed Venezuelan opposition
leader Leopoldo Lopez, Lilian Tintori (L), wave upon their arrival at the Simon Bolivar International Airport, in Maiquetia,
Venezuela. — AFP
by 2019.
The prospect of opposition parties
being blocked from elections could
raise concern in Washington where
the Trump administration this week
blacklisted Venezuela’s Vice President
Tareck El Aissami and called for the
release of jailed opposition leader
Leopoldo Lopez.
Maduro’s opponents say his
strategy is similar to that of Nicaraguan
leftist president Daniel Ortega, who
cruised to a third consecutive election
victory in November after a top court
ruling ousted the leader of the main
opposition party. That left Ortega
running against a candidate widely
seen as a shadow ally.
“The regime is preparing
Nicaraguan-style elections without
political parties and false opposition
candidates chosen by the government,”
legislator and former Congress
president Henry Ramos wrote via
Twitter, suggesting the government
would seek to have shadow allies run
as if they were part of the opposition.
The moves come as Maduro’s
approval ratings hover near 20
per cent due to anger over chronic
food shortages that lead to routine
supermarket lootings and force many
Venezuelans to skip meals. — Reuters