Senate to investigate Braskem as mine disaster looms

On Tuesday, senators will hold the first meeting of a special committee to investigate Braskem, Latin America’s largest petrochemical company, whose abusive salt mining practices have led to the largest urban environmental disaster in Brazil, causing the condemnation of more than 14,000 properties in five neighborhoods of the city of Maceió.

The motion to create the committee was authored by Senator Renan Calheiros, who represents the state of Alagoas, of which Maceió is the capital. In a video statement, Mr. Calheiros thanked his fellow senators for their support and said the first meeting would be held on Tuesday afternoon. 

He added that the committee would “determine legal responsibility and ensure fair compensation” and “help ensure that environmental crimes like the one in Maceió are not repeated.”

About 55,000 people have been forced to leave their homes and businesses since the first cracks appeared in 2018. Neighborhoods became ghost towns. In 2019, a study by the Brazilian Geological Service confirmed that abusive salt mining practices were the main cause of soil instability in the region.

In October of this year, a local court ordered Braskem to pay financial compensation to the state of Alagoas, but the company can still appeal. 

Braskem’s controlling shareholder is Novonor, an infrastructure group formerly known as Odebrecht. Once the largest of its kind in Latin America, Odebrecht was at the center of the largest corruption scandal in Brazil’s history, uncovered by the years-long anti-corruption task force Operation Car Wash.

In 2016, Braskem and Odebrecht pleaded guilty to the U.S. Department of Justice and agreed to pay at least USD 3.5 billion to “resolve the largest foreign bribery case in history.” 

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