LIMA, (Reuters) – Brazilian construction firms are the biggest donors to Peruvian presidential front-runner Alejandro Toledo, official documents show, at a time when Peru is building billions of dollars in roads, ports and dams.
Three companies, including Camargo Correa and Galvao Engenharia, have given the former president a combined 530,000 soles ($190,000), a small fortune in Peru, according to documents from the country’s ONPE elections regulator.
One of the companies, Queipuz Galvan, is a unit of Galvao, according to a Peruvian media report. Officials at Galvao in Lima and Camargo Correa in Brazil were not available for comment.
Peruvian law allows for local companies or foreign firms, usually through local units, to donate to political campaigns.
The giving by the Brazilian companies underscores growing “south-south” ties among emerging markets. Not one donation to any of Peru’s leading candidates was made by a firm from the United States, which long viewed South America as its own backyard but is now seeing its dominance in the region challenged by Brazil.
While president from 2001 to 2006, Toledo was the architect of Peru’s free-trade pact with the United States. He also spearheaded construction of a new transcontinental road from Brazil through Peru that opened last month and was partly built by Brazilian firm Odebrecht.
Two other transcontinental routes are being built and $5 billion concessions for infrastructure projects have been awarded in the last few years. More concessions for energy and road projects are planned.
Odebrecht has said it plans to invest $10 billion on infrastructure in Peru over the next five years, more than any other foreign company. Odebrecht was not listed as a donor to Toledo, according to Peru’s elections regulator.
So far, Toledo has received 2.5 million soles in donations — more than any other candidate in the race. Besides the Brazilian companies, nearly all of Toledo’s contributors are individuals. He has poured some of the money into sophisticated Internet advertising that other candidates lack.
