Brazil: insider claims Rousseff coalition took funds from Belo Monte mega-dam
by Jonathan Watts in Rio de Janeiro from Environment | The Guardian on (#19VHZ)
The controversial Belo Monte hydropower dam was pushed through by President Rousseff despite protests by environmental and social campaigners
Indigenous communities and the Amazon rain forest have joined the growing list of potential victims of Brazil's huge corruption scandal, according to a senior construction executive who testified that the Belo Monte dam was used to generate 150m reais ($41.4m) in donations to the ruling coalition.
In a plea bargain that adds to the pressure on Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, Otivio Marques de Azevedo, the former president of the construction company Andrade Gutierrez, also told investigators that dozens of other projects were used to generate funds for political parties.
