This month, the former president of Argentina Alberto Fernández (2019-2023), Javier’s predecessor Milei at Casa Rosada, was sued by the country’s court in a case involving irregular insurance hiring during his management. He would have benefited several allies with public money from a decree that required all public agencies to contract Nation safestate bank company National Bank.
With the accusations announced on the 11th, the peronist joins the list of leftist “friends” of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) who may be – or have already been – convicted of corruption and other crimes.
Remember other cases
Also recently, another longtime ally of the petista in Argentina, the former president Cristina Kirchnerhe had an appeal denied by the Supreme Court and began to comply with a six -year sentence for corruption in the granting of road works in the province of Santa Cruz during his government and that of his predecessor in the presidency and deceased husband, Nestor Kirchner.
Earlier this month, Lula came to visit Kirchner, who meets house arrest in his apartment in Buenos Aires. At the time, the Brazilian president told the Brazil agency who has a friendship of many years with Cristina “who goes far beyond the institutional relationship. A affection and affection of friends, companions of political field and ideals of social justice and combat inequalities.”
In another recent case, from April, the petista directly intruded Brazil in a criminal action in Peru, also for corruption. At the time, the president used the Brazilian embassy in Peru and the Brazilian Air Force to help former Peruvian first lady Nadine Heredia flee from his country after a 15-year conviction for corruption and money laundering.
Her husband, former leftist president Ollanta Humala (2011-2016), was also convicted at Lava Jato Peruvian, in the same action.
Another authoritarian figure of Lula, but from whom he has been distanced since the last elections denounced by fraud, is the dictator Nicolás Madurofrom Venezuela. The Chavista was sentenced in 2018 by the Supreme Court of Venezuela in exile 18 years and three months in prison for corruption and money laundering by the case related to Brazilian construction Odebrecht.
Chavista and the petista, who used to support themselves regionally in the past, now face political tensions precisely because of the corruption and political abuse of the Venezuelan dictatorship.
Despite Lula’s recent criticism of the Maduro regime, trade and economic relations between Brazil and Venezuela remain firm.
Data from the Secretariat of Foreign Trade (Secex), linked to the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services (MDIC), show that in the last four years exports to the neighboring country have exceeded US $ 1 billion per year. In 2024, they reached US $ 1.2 billion, an increase of 3.8% compared to 2022.
This week, the regime of Nicolás Maduro took the Brazilian government by surprise with the collection of tariffs on imports from the country that may vary from 15% to 77%. The measure, which has not been clarified as a bureaucratic or purposeful error by the neighboring dictatorship, can yield new friction between the two leftist leaders.
Another corrupt mature tactic to maintain its dictatorship is to position key figures in high-ranking positions, including many family members.
The Colombian leftist Gustavo Petro He also faced political turbulence in the early years of his administration. Before completing a year of government, management was already facing several scandals and accusations of corruption.
In 2023, a large scandal exploded involving employees close to the president, such as former Chief of Staff Laura Sarabia and Armando Benedetti, a former Wizard in Venezuela.
The Colombian press revealed at the time the robbery of large amounts of money that would have illegal origin and would have sponsored Petro’s campaign. An anonymous source told the magazine Week that the money stolen at the house of the former chief of staff would directly belong to Petro and totaled 3 billion Colombian pesos (about $ 718,000).
A new crisis began this year that caused mass renunciations of the presidential office after Petro, accused of corruption, to be appointed by the president himself as head of the presidential office.
