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LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR a DAILY PUBLICATION of the DIALOGUE Tuesday, April 5, 2016

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LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR a DAILY PUBLICATION of the DIALOGUE Tuesday, April 5, 2016 LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR A DAILY PUBLICATION OF THE DIALOGUE www.thedialogue.org Tuesday, April 5, 2016 BOARD OF ADVISORS FEATURED Q&A TODAY’S NEWS Diego Arria Director, Columbus Group POLITICAL Genaro Arriagada Who Is Likely to Nonresident Senior Fellow, Panama Firm Kept Inter-American Dialogue Internationally Joyce Chang Global Head of Research, Succeed Correa Sanctioned Clients JPMorgan Chase & Co. Mossack Fonseca, the Pana- W. Bowman Cutter Former Partner, in Ecuador? ma-based law fi rm at the center of E.M. Warburg Pincus a massive data leak, aided clients Dirk Donath who were subject to international Senior Partner, sanctions, documents show. Catterton Aimara Page 2 Marlene Fernández Corporate Vice President for Government Relations, BUSINESS Arcos Dorados Peter Hakim Vale to Sell Stake President Emeritus, Inter-American Dialogue in CSA Plant to Donna Hrinak ThyssenKrupp President, Boeing Latin America Brazilian mining company Vale Jon Huenemann said it plans to sell its 27 percent Vice President, U.S. & Int’l Affairs, Philip Morris International Rafael Correa, pictured last week at the presidential palace in Quito, was fi rst elected Ecuador’s stake in the Companhia Siderúr- president in 2006. // File Photo: Ecuadorean Government. gica do Atlantico steel plant to its James R. Jones Co-chair, Manatt Jones German partner. Global Strategies LLC Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa told a group of broad- Page 3 Craig A. Kelly Director, Americas International cast journalists last month that he will not run again for POLITICAL Gov’t Relations, Exxon Mobil president in 2017. Who is Correa likely to position as his John Maisto Q Brazil Lawyer Director, U.S. Education successor? What issues are likely to be most important to Finance Group voters as they decide whom to select as their next president? Might Makes Last-Ditch Nicolás Mariscal Chairman, Correa change his mind and decide to run for another term? Is Correa Eff ort to Prevent Grupo Marhnos likely to exert a great deal of infl uence in Ecuadorean politics after his Impeachment Thomas F. McLarty III presidency ends? President, The Brazilian government’s top McLarty Associates defense lawyer told a special Carlos Paz-Soldan legislative committee that Presi- Partner, Daniela Chacón Arias, deputy mayor of Quito: “Correa’s dent Dilma Rousseff has broken DTB Associates, LLP announcement has certainly shaken the political outcomes no laws and was the victim of a Beatrice Rangel for 2017. His party, Alianza Pais, is under internal disputes “coup” by her political rivals. Director, Page 2 AMLA Consulting LLC A over who will be the successor. The strongest candidates José Antonio Ríos are former Vice President Lenín Moreno and the current one, Jorge Glas. Chief Executive Offi cer, Vadium Technology Inc. The likeliest candidate will be one that can ensure continuity of Correa’s Gustavo Roosen model and the unity of the party. Given that the economy is in bad shape Chairman of the Board, Envases Venezolanos due to oil prices and poor management of the economy during the good Andrés Rozental years, the main issues will be job creation and getting the economy up President, Rozental & Asociados and Senior again. The state of the country’s democratic institutions and liberties will Policy Advisor, Chatham House be on the campaign agenda as well, especially for the social and political Shelly Shetty Head, Latin America groups that have been protesting over these important issues. Correa Sovereign Ratings, Fitch Inc. exerts a great infl uence in Ecuador’s politics, so every move the govern- Roberto Sifon-Arevalo ment makes this year will have a great impact on the elections. Correa Managing Director, Americas Sovereign & Public Finance Ratings, continues to introduce bills to obtain more resources to balance the bud- Standard & Poor’s get and this is creating social unrest. It is likely that the year will continue in such manner. Therefore, depending on the economy and the results of Rousseff // File Photo: Brazilian Government. Continued on page 3 COPYRIGHT © 2016, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE PAGE 1 LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR Tuesday, April 5, 2016 POLITICAL NEWS interview. “It’s something that’s being lost NEWS BRIEFS today but it’s a human right.” Fonseca added Panama Firm that his clients had done nothing wrong. “I Trump Would Threaten don’t expect this to lead to one single legal to Cut off Remittances to Helped Clients case,” he told the Financial Times. The so- called “Panama Papers” name at least a dozen Force Mexico to Fund Wall Subject to Sanctions current or former heads of state, as well as U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump said sports fi gures and other celebrities. Among the he would force Mexico to pay his proposed wall The Panama-based law fi rm at the center of political leaders mentioned are Icelandic Prime along the United States’ southern border by a data leak involving more than 11 million Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, associates threatening to cut off the fl ow of remittances documents had clients that were subject to of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Argen- from the United States to Mexico, The Washing- international sanctions, including entities in tine President Mauricio Macri. Gunnlaugsson ton Post reported today. “It’s an easy decision Iran, North Korea and Zimbabwe, according and Macri have denied wrongdoing, as has for Mexico. Make a one-time payment of $5-10 to documents that were part of the leak, BBC Putin through a spokesman. The “Panama billion to ensure that $24 billion continues to News reported. Among the clients of law Papers” show that Macri served as director of fl ow into their country year after year,” Trump fi rm Mossack Fonseca were 33 individuals or Fleg Trading, a Bahamas-based company that told the newspaper in a memo. was founded in 1998 and dissolved in 2009, BBC News reported. Macri said in a television interview on Monday that his father had set up the company and denied wrongdoing. “It was Brazil Gov’t Lawyer Makes The right to Last-Ditch Eff ort at privacy is very an offshore company to invest in Brazil, an investment that ultimately wasn’t completed, important—everyone Preventing Impeachment and where I was director,” said Macri. “There The Brazilian government’s top defense lawyer, has the right.” is nothing strange about this.” Late on Sunday, Solicitor General José Eduardo Cardozo, told — Ramón Fonseca Macri’s administration said the president had a special parliamentary committee Monday never had a stake in the fi rm so he had not that President Dilma Rousseff had broken no been required to disclose his association with laws and was a victim of a “coup” by rivals, The it. “To create a company in a tax haven is not a Wall Street Journal reported. The committee in crime in and of itself,” the head of Argentina’s question is tasked with recommending whether companies that had been sanctioned by the anti-corruption offi ce, Laura Alonso, said in a Brazil’s lower house should move forward U.S. Treasury. One of them was linked to North posting on Twitter. with the impeachment proceedings against Korea’s nuclear program. In some cases, the Rousseff, and Cardozo’s statement was seen fi rm began working with the blacklisted clients as a last-ditch effort to convince legislators to before the sanctions were imposed, but then ECONOMIC NEWS shelve the proceedings. The committee is likely it continued working with them afterward as a to issue its recommendation this week. proxy, according to documents. The huge data leak was revealed Sunday by a consortium of Ecuador Begins media organizations and the Washington-based Drilling in Yasuní International Consortium of Investigative Jour- Honduras’ Murder Rate nalists, which published details of an investiga- Rainforest Block Falls in First Three tion showing that Mossack Fonseca allegedly Months of the Year helped powerful clients hide assets through Ecuador has started drilling for oil on the various offshore entities, the real owners of edge of a block of the undeveloped Yasuní Honduras registered 1,122 murders in the fi rst which were made diffi cult to trace. The law fi rm rainforest inhabited by two of the world’s last three months of the year, down 14.6 percent has denied wrongdoing. In an interview with tribes living in voluntary isolation, The Guardian from the same period last year, the Security the Financial Times, one of the fi rm’s founders, reported Monday. The well platform is known Ministry said Monday, EFE reported. A daily av- Ramón Fonseca, called the data leak a media as the Tiputini C, which is now operational a erage of 12 homicides per day was registered “witch hunt” and added that establishing off- few kilometers from the Peruvian border in the during the period, as compared to 14 per day shore companies is a legitimate business. “The Yasuní National Park, and is one of as many as during the same period in 2015, the ministry’s right to privacy is very important—everyone has 200 wells that would be needed to extract the report said. The document highlighted Teguci- the right,” he told the newspaper in a telephone estimated 920 million barrels of crude beneath galpa and San Pedro Sula as the cities with the highest murder rates. COPYRIGHT © 2016, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE PAGE 2 LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR Tuesday, April 5, 2016 FEATURED Q&A / Continued from page 1 the Ishpingo Tambococha Tiputini (ITT) block. Many Ecuadoreans have said they expect oil the latest measures, Correa will decide to that scenario, a probable option for Correa exploitation in Yasuní to lead to pollution, for- run. He has changed the Constitution for it, would be to opt for a seat in the legislature, est destruction and the decimation of the two so the possibility cannot be discarded.
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