A woman holds an image depicting President Danilo Medina as protesters march on the presidential palace in Santo Domingo to demand an end to corruption on Jan. 22, 2017.
Photographer: Erika Santelices/AFP via Getty ImagesA Graft Machine’s Collapse Sows Chaos in the Caribbean
In the Dominican Republic, the fall of the Odebrecht corruption empire is threatening a power plant—and a presidency.
Hipolito Polanco was locked in a primary against President Danilo Medina in the Dominican Republic when he got a phone call from a number he didn’t recognize.
It was January 2016, and Polanco, a 39-year-old lawyer, was the last candidate still standing to challenge the president for the Dominican Liberation Party nomination. The voice on the phone was offering him a bribe and a high-ranking political position if he quit the race. “They asked me, ‘What’s your price?’” says Polanco. “They said they would arrange everything.”