10 The activities carried out by Itaipú relate to matters of public interest. Thus, the companies and persons who work with Itaipú are also related to matters of public interest. To accomplish its activities, the Itaipú bi-national entity contracts and acquires goods and services from other corporations. CONEMPA was one of the principal corporations contracted by Itaipú during the construction of the dam and the hydroelectric power plant, principally to carry out construction work. As a Senator and member of the Bicameral Investigation Committee, the witness took part in the Subcommission responsible for investigating the alleged acts of corruption involving Juan Carlos Wasmosy and CONEMPA. The reports of corruption involving Mr. Wasmosy and CONEMPA were based on real acts of corruption, and have caused significant damage to Itaipú and, consequently, to the States associated with this entity. The witness knows Mr. Canese; he met him for the first time in the 1970s, when the alleged victim was in exile in Holland, because he required his expertise as an authority on energy-related matters, specializing in binational hydroelectric dams on the Paraná River. Since then, they have maintained a relationship based on such matters. Since the 1970s, Ricardo Canese has taken part in prominent public activities, of national interest, concerning energy-related matters; he is considered to be one of the country’s principal authorities in this area. At the beginning of the 1990s, Mr. Canese was carrying out his research work and publishing books and articles on these matters. He also played a very significant role in the political life of the country, because he was elected Municipal Councilor and President of the Municipal Council of Asunción, and was a candidate to the presidency of the Republic of Paraguay. The electoral process to elect the President of the Republic, which culminated in May 1993, took place in the midst of the transition to democracy. The new Constitution, which guaranteed “a clean and equal basis for the campaigns of the different candidates,” governed the general elections process for the first time. In this electoral process, there was a much greater divulgation of information by the campaigns and the press than in the past. It was essential for the democratization process that the electorate should be well informed about the background of each of the candidates and, particularly, those who had participated in or obtained benefits during the dictatorship. The statements made by the alleged victim about the relationship between Mr. Wasmosy and former dictator Stroessner achieved considerable visibility, because Mr. Canese, as an expert on Itaipú, drew attention to Mr. Wasmosy’s collaboration with the dictatorship so that the electorate would be better informed about the facts when they voted. According to the witness, Ricardo Canese’s statements “were always consistent with the truth about the facts.” The prohibition to leave the country imposed on the alleged victim severely affected the work of Congress’s Bicameral Investigation Committee on Itaipú, because, owing to the bi-national nature of Itaipú, much of the Committee’s