Brazil’s corruption scandals may be the best thing to happen to Latin America

Marcelo Odebrecht

If you think that the corruption scandal swirling around Brazilian President Michel Temer is the only one that will shake Latin America in coming weeks, mark your calendar: There will be many more corruption-related headlines across the region starting on June 3.

That’s the day the attorney general’s office in Brazil will start disclosing the bulk of the names of government officials in 11 countries who took nearly $800 million in bribes from the Odebrecht construction giant in one of the region’s biggest corruption scandals ever. Unlike Temer’s latest corruption scandal, which surfaced after press reports of a tape in which he allegedly endorsed a bribe to a leading legislator, the Odebrecht revelations will touch political figures across Latin America.