Luck turns around for main informant in Mexico’s Odebrecht scandal

Brazil’s Operation Car Wash anti-corruption probe has upended politics far beyond the country of its origin. In Peru, investigations tied to Odebrecht S.A, now renamed Novonor, the Brazilian construction conglomerate, have led to the downfall of multiple former presidents. Alejandro Toledo is now under house arrest in the U.S., Ollanta Humala could face 20 years behind bars, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned from the presidency in 2018, and looming arrest orders even led to former two-time president Alan García taking his own life in 2019.

In Mexico, one person promised to unleash a similar amount of mayhem: Emilio Lozoya Austin, former director of Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) from 2012 to 2016, a state-owned oil firm Mr. Lozoya pivoted to become a star informant of massive corruption schemes, pointing the finger at some of Mexico’s highest-ranking politicians and public officials, including former presidents Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Felipe Calderón, and Enrique Peña Nieto.

Yet paradoxically, despite Mr. Lozoya’s crusade to curb Mexico’s corruption endemic, the former head of Pemex wasn’t entirely free from graft himself. In 2020, Mr. Lozoya was accused of receiving almost USD 10.5 million in contractual kickbacks from scandal-plagued Odebrecht in exchange for handing massive Pemex contracts to the firm to partially finance the electoral campaign of President Enrique Pena Nieto, who served as head of state between 2012 and 2018. 

But recently, the star witness’s luck has seen a turn of fate. First, despite the corruption charges against him, Mr. Lozoya continued to live a luxurious lifestyle in Mexico, leading to scandals and public outcry that saw his requests for bail revoked. In November last year, he was sent to...