{"id":72538,"date":"2016-04-25T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T11:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=72538"},"modified":"2016-04-25T12:39:54","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T11:39:54","slug":"to-see-the-real-story-in-brazil-look-at-who-is-being-installed-as-president-and-finance-chiefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/04\/to-see-the-real-story-in-brazil-look-at-who-is-being-installed-as-president-and-finance-chiefs\/","title":{"rendered":"To See the Real Story in Brazil, Look at Who Is Being Installed as President \u2014 and Finance Chiefs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"glenn<\/a>22 Apr 2016 – <\/em>It\u2019s not easy for outsiders to sort through all the competing claims about Brazil\u2019s political crisis and the ongoing effort to oust\u00a0its president, Dilma Rousseff, who won re-election a mere 18 months ago with 54 million votes. But the most important means for understanding the truly anti-democratic nature of what\u2019s taking place is to look at the person whom Brazilian oligarchs and their media organs are trying to install as president: the corruption-tainted, deeply unpopular, oligarch-serving Vice President Michel Temer (below). Doing so shines a bright light on what\u2019s really going on, and why the world should be deeply disturbed.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/em>\u2019s Brazil bureau chief, Simon Romero, interviewed Temer\u00a0this week, and this is how his\u00a0excellent article begins<\/a>:<\/p>\n

RIO DE JANEIRO \u2014 One recent poll found that only 2 percent of Brazilians would vote for him. He is under scrutiny over testimony linking him to a\u00a0colossal graft scandal. And a high court justice ruled that Congress should consider impeachment proceedings against him.<\/em><\/p>\n

Michel Temer, Brazil\u2019s vice president, is preparing to take the helm of Brazil next month if the Senate decides to put President Dilma Rousseff on trial.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Michel<\/a>

Michel Temer – Photo: Eraldo Peres\/AP<\/p><\/div>\n

How can\u00a0anyone rational<\/em> believe that anti-corruption anger is driving the elite effort to remove\u00a0Dilma when they\u00a0are now\u00a0installing someone as president who is accused of corruption\u00a0far more serious\u00a0<\/em>than she is? It\u2019s an obvious farce. But there\u2019s something even worse.<\/p>\n

\"House<\/a>

House Speaker Eduardo Cunha. Photo: Dida Sampaio\/Estadao via AP<\/p><\/div>\n

The person who is third in line to the presidency, right behind Temer, has been exposed as shamelessly\u00a0corrupt: the evangelical zealot and House speaker Eduardo Cunha. He\u2019s the one who spearheaded the impeachment proceedings even though he got caught last year squirreling away\u00a0millions of dollars<\/a> in bribes in Swiss bank accounts, after having lied to Congress when falsely denying that he had any accounts in foreign banks. When Romero asked Temer about\u00a0his posture toward Cunha once he takes power, this is how\u00a0Temer responded:<\/p>\n

Mr. Temer defended himself and top allies who are under a cloud of accusations in the scheme. He expressed support for Eduardo Cunha, the scandal-plagued speaker of the lower house who is leading the impeachment effort in Congress, saying he would not ask Mr. Cunha to resign. Mr. Cunha will be the next in line for the presidency if Mr. Temer takes over.<\/em><\/p>\n

By itself, this demonstrates the massive scam taking place here. As my partner, David Miranda, wrote this morning in his\u00a0Guardian<\/em> op-ed<\/a>: \u201cIt has now become clear that\u00a0corruption is not the cause of the effort to oust Brazil\u2019s twice-elected president; rather, corruption is merely the pretext.\u201d In response, Brazil\u2019s media elites will claim (as Temer did) that once Dilma is impeached, then the other corrupt politicians will most certainly be held accountable, but they know this is false<\/a>,<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0and Temer\u2019s shocking support for Cunha\u00a0makes that clear.\u00a0Indeed, press reports show that Temer is planning to install<\/a> as attorney general \u2014 the key government contact\u00a0for\u00a0the corruption investigation \u2014 a politician specifically urged for that position by Cunha<\/a>. As Miranda\u2019s op-ed explains, \u201cThe real plan behind Rousseff\u2019s impeachment is to put an end to the ongoing investigation, thus protecting corruption, not punishing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s one more vital motive driving all of this. Look at who is going to take over Brazil\u2019s economy and finances once Dilma\u2019s election victory is nullified. Two weeks ago, Reuters reported<\/a> that Temer\u2019s leading choice to run the central bank is the chair of Goldman Sachs in Brazil, Paulo Leme. Today, Reuters reported<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0\u201cMurilo Portugal, the head of Brazil\u2019s most powerful banking industry lobby<\/strong>\u201d \u2014 and a long-time IMF official<\/a> \u2014 \u201chas emerged as a strong candidate to become finance minister if Temer takes power.\u201d Temer\u00a0also vowed that\u00a0he would embrace austerity<\/a>\u00a0for Brazil\u2019s already-suffering population: He \u201cintends to downsize the government\u201d and \u201cslash spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"reuters-540x366<\/a><\/p>\n

In an earning calls last Friday with JP Morgan, the celebratory CEO of Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior SA, Rubens Amaral,\u00a0explicitly\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0Dilma\u2019s impeachment as \u201cone of the first steps to normalization in Brazil,\u201d and said that if Temer\u2019s new government implements the \u201cstructural reforms\u201d that the financial community desires, then \u201cdefinitely there will be opportunities.\u201d News of Temer\u2019s preferred appointees strongly suggests Mr. Amaral \u2014 and his fellow plutocrats \u2014 will be pleased.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the dominant Brazilian media organs of Globo, Abril (Veja), Estad\u00e3o \u2014 which Miranda\u2019s op-ed discusses at length \u2014 are virtually unified in support of impeachment, as in No Dissent Allowed, and have been inciting the street protests from the start. Why is that revealing? Reporters Without Borders just yesterday released its 2016 Press Freedom Rankings<\/a>, and ranked Brazil 103 in the world because of violence against journalists but also because of this key fact<\/a>: \u201cMedia ownership continues to be very concentrated, especially in the hands of big industrial families that are often close to the political class<\/strong>.\u201d Is it not crystal clear what\u2019s going on here?<\/p>\n

So to summarize: Brazilian financial and media elites are pretending that corruption is the reason for removing the twice-elected president of the country as they conspire to install and empower the country\u2019s most corrupted political figures. Brazilian oligarchs will have succeeded in removing from power a moderately left-wing government that won four straight elections in the name of representing the country\u2019s poor, and are literally handing control over the Brazilian economy (the world\u2019s seventh largest) to Goldman Sachs and bank industry lobbyists.<\/p>\n

This fraud being perpetrated here is\u00a0as\u00a0blatant\u00a0as it is\u00a0devastating. But it\u2019s the same pattern that has been repeatedly seen around the world, particularly in Latin America, when a tiny elite wages a self-protective, self-serving war on the fundamentals of democracy.\u00a0Brazil, the world\u2019s fifth most populous country, has been an inspiring example of how a young democracy can mature and thrive. But now, those democratic institutions and principles are being fully assaulted by the very same financial and media factions that suppressed democracy and imposed tyranny in that country for decades.<\/p>\n

__________________________________<\/p>\n

Glenn Greenwald<\/a> – \u2709glenn.greenwald@theintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Additional Reporting: Andrew Fishman<\/a> and Lee Fang<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Para ler a vers\u00e3o desse artigo em Portugu\u00eas, <\/em>clique aqui<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One recent poll found that only 2 percent of Brazilians would vote for Michel Temer, Brazil\u2019s vice president. He is under scrutiny over testimony linking him to a colossal graft scandal. And a high court justice ruled that Congress should consider impeachment proceedings against him. He is preparing to take the helm of Brazil next month if the Senate decides to put President Dilma Rousseff on trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}