Brazil today
[23/5] awoke to stunning news of secret, genuinely shocking
conversations involving a key minister in Brazil’s newly installed
government, which shine a bright light on the actual motives and
participants driving the impeachment of the country’s
democratically elected president, Dilma Rousseff. The transcripts
were published by the country’s largest newspaper, Folha de São
Paulo, and reveal secret conversations that took place in March, just
weeks before the impeachment vote in the lower house was held. They
show explicit plotting between the new planning minister
(then-senator), Romero Jucá, and former oil executive Sergio Machado
— both of whom are formal targets of the “Car Wash” corruption
investigation — as they agree that removing Dilma is the only means
for ending the corruption investigation. The conversations also
include discussions of the important role played in Dilma’s removal
by the most powerful national institutions, including — most
importantly — Brazil’s military leaders.
The
transcripts are filled with profoundly incriminating statements about
the real goals of impeachment and who was behind it. The crux of this
plot is what Jucá calls “a national pact” — involving all of
Brazil’s most powerful institutions — to leave Michel Temer in
place as president (notwithstanding his multiple corruption scandals)
and to kill the corruption investigation once Dilma is removed. In
the words of Folha, Jucá made clear that impeachment will “end
the pressure from the media and other sectors to continue the Car
Wash investigation.” Jucá is the leader of Temer’s PMDB
party and one of the “interim president’s” three closest
confidants.
It is
unclear who is responsible for recording and leaking the 75-minute
conversation, but Folha reports that the files are currently in the
hand of the prosecutor general. The next few hours and days will
likely see new revelations that will shed additional light on the
implications and meaning of these transcripts.
Full
report:
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