{"id":75995,"date":"2016-07-04T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2016-07-04T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=75995"},"modified":"2016-07-04T12:36:30","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T11:36:30","slug":"major-new-brazil-events-expose-the-fraud-of-dilmas-impeachment-and-temers-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/07\/major-new-brazil-events-expose-the-fraud-of-dilmas-impeachment-and-temers-corruption\/","title":{"rendered":"Major New Brazil Events Expose the Fraud of Dilma\u2019s Impeachment \u2014 and Temer\u2019s Corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Glenn-Greenwald-Original_350\"<\/a>Para ler a vers\u00e3o desse artigo em Portugu\u00eas, clique aqui<\/u><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

30 Jun 2016 – <\/em>From the start of the campaign to impeach Brazil\u2019s democratically elected President Dilma Rousseff, the primary justification<\/a> was that she used a\u00a0budget trick<\/a> known as pedaladas<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cpeddling\u201d: illegal delay of re-payments to\u00a0state banks) to mask public debt. But this week, as the Senate conducts her impeachment trial, that accusation was obliterated: The Senate\u2019s own expert report concluded\u00a0there<\/a> was \u201cno indication of direct or indirect action\u00a0by Dilma\u201d\u00a0in any such budgetary maneuvers<\/a>. As the\u00a0Associated Press put it<\/a>: \u201cIndependent auditors hired by Brazil\u2019s Senate said in a report released Monday that suspended President Dilma Rousseff didn\u2019t engage in the creative accounting she was charged with at her impeachment trial.\u201d In other words, the Senate\u2019s own objective experts gutted the primary claim as to why impeachment was something other than a coup.<\/p>\n

The report\u00a0did not fully exonerate\u00a0Dilma, finding that she did open lines of credit without congressional approval, part of the impeachment case. But it was the pedaladas<\/em> charge that dominated the debate\u00a0all along<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"nyt2-540x343\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"nyt1-540x189\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"pedaladas-540x444\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(Headline above: Dilma is under threat of impeachment because of fiscal pedaladas)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"elpaisdilma-540x363\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"globopeda-540x442\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If Dilma\u2019s impeachment were actually motivated by its stated cause \u2014 lawbreaking \u2014 this devastating report would stop impeachment in its tracks. Elio Gaspari, a leading columnist with Brazil\u2019s largest paper,\u00a0Folha de S\u00e3o Paulo<\/em>, wrote on Tuesday<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 under the headline \u201cThere is a Coup\u201d \u2014 that in light of this new report, Dilma\u2019s impeachment may not be a \u201ccoup\u201d in the sense that it is being achieved extra-legally,\u00a0but it is now a coup in the sense that it is achieved without elections: by \u201cplotting\u201d through a\u00a0\u201cruse.\u201d<\/p>\n

But\u00a0so obviously, impeachment was never about any alleged lawbreaking by Dilma \u2014 that was just the excuse to remove a democratically elected president for ideological reasons\u00a0\u2014 which is why the destruction of the primary legal charge against her\u00a0has barely dented the impeachment momentum. Even the vehemently anti-Dilma paper\u00a0Estad\u00e3o <\/em>documented<\/a>\u00a0how leading impeachment advocates this week instantly shifted their rationale: from claiming that pedaladas<\/em> requires her impeachment to proclaiming that it was never actually important in the first place. Those are the actions of people devoted to an end without caring about the justification: They are determined to impeach Dilma for ideological reasons, so the destruction of the legal case against her makes no difference.<\/p>\n

\"yahoodilma-540x313\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"bah-540x610\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"jnped-540x338\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Headline above: Expert report concludes that Dilma did not participate in fiscal\u00a0pedaladas)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"folhagolpe-540x390\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Even more significant is the growing evidence of the full-scale corruption of Dilma\u2019s installed replacement, Michel Temer. In just over 30 days since his installation, Temer lost three of his chosen ministers<\/a> to corruption. One of them, his extremely close ally Romero Juc\u00e1, was caught on tape plotting<\/a> Dilma\u2019s impeachment as a way to shut down the ongoing corruption investigation, as well as indicating that Brazil\u2019s\u00a0military, the media, and the courts were all participants in the\u00a0impeachment plotting.<\/p>\n

A key investigation informant, former senator and construction executive\u00a0S\u00e9rgio Machado, has now said that Temer received and controlled<\/a>\u00a01.5 million reals in illegal campaign funds, while a separate informant last week said<\/a>\u00a0Temer was the \u201cbeneficiary\u201d of 1 million reals in bribes. And Temer is now banned by a court order\u00a0from running for any office for eight years<\/a> due to his own violation of election laws. Remember: This<\/em>\u00a0is who, in the name of fighting \u201ccorruption,\u201d Brazil\u2019s elites installed in the place of the elected president.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Temer\u2019s\u00a0political party, PMDB, is almost certainly the most corrupt in this hemisphere<\/a>. Its\u00a0president of the lower House, Eduardo Cunha \u2014 who presided over Dilma\u2019s impeachment \u2014 is now suspended by the Supreme Court, and the House\u2019s Ethics Commission just voted to expel him entirely because he lied about bribe-filled Swiss bank accounts\u00a0he controls. The same construction executive, Machado,\u00a0testified that<\/a> three of PMBD\u2019s key leaders \u2014 including Juc\u00e1 \u2014 were paid a total of 71.1 million reals in bribes. Meanwhile, two key Temer allies from the center-right PSDB that Dilma defeated in 2014 \u2014 Temer\u2019s Foreign Minister Jos\u00e9 Serra<\/a>\u00a0and Dilma\u2019s 2014 opponent A\u00e9cio Neves<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 are now both targets of the corruption investigation.<\/p>\n

Until Temer\u2019s party, PMDB,\u00a0decided to support Dilma\u2019s impeachment and thus empower its own corrupt leaders, PMDB was a key ally of Dilma. Dilma\u2019s party, PT, has its own healthy share of corrupt figures. But PMDB is little more than a self-serving, opportunistic transactional faction\u00a0that has existed to grease the wheels of corruption and kickbacks in Bras\u00edlia<\/a>. The ironic joke that\u00a0this<\/em> is the party that has gained power and taken over in the name of anti-corruption is too extreme to put into words. As\u00a0the New York Times<\/em> put it in May<\/a>, Temer\u2019s party is the one that controlled, and has now ruined, Rio: \u201cThe same party that created a mess in Rio is now running the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

As glaring\u00a0as Temer\u2019s corruption and the fraud of Dilma\u2019s impeachment already were, two new events this week\u00a0bolster it even further. First, Temer\u00a0had dinner with two members of Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court<\/a> \u2014 the body presiding over the corruption investigation and impeachment proceedings. Also attending the meeting were his Foreign Minister Serra and his close ally A\u00e9cio, both of whom are targets of that corruption probe. So Temer is literally meeting in secret with the very judges who are deciding impeachment and corruption probes (at the same time that Brazilian politicians, preparing to impose austerity measures, are voting to lavish these judges with a significant\u00a0increase in their salary<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Second, at the same time that Temer is privately meeting with key judges, reports have surfaced<\/a> that he is working hard on an agreement to \u201csave the skin\u201d of\u00a0Cunha, one of the country\u2019s most corrupt politicians. Temer met at night with Cunha<\/a> just this week. One plan\u00a0being actively discussed<\/a>\u00a0would allow\u00a0Cunha to\u00a0resign and then have his criminal case assigned to favorable judges<\/a>. Another provides that Cunha merely resign his presidency to maximize the chances that he will not be expelled from the House altogether. Worse still,\u00a0O Globo<\/em> today reported<\/a> that Temer is now actively working with A\u00e9cio to ensure that Cunha\u2019s successor is favorable to him<\/a>: someone who \u201cdid not work for Cunha\u2019s removal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just think about what has happened when it comes to control over the world\u2019s fifth most populous (and very oil-rich<\/a>) country. The democratically elected president was impeached despite no allegations of personal corruption \u2014 by politicians who are knee-deep in bribery and kickback scandals. The primary\u00a0pretext\u00a0used to impeach her has just been debunked by the Senate\u2019s own independent expert report. The corruption-plagued man they installed in her place \u2014 who currently has a 70 percent disapproval rating, and whom 60 percent of the country wants impeached \u2014 is now secretly meeting with the very judges whose supposed independence, credibility, and integrity were\u00a0the prime argument against calling this a \u201ccoup,\u201d all while he plots to save his bribery-enriched fellow party member. And while all this happens, they are blithely proceeding to impose a right-wing agenda of austerity and privatization<\/a>\u00a0that democracy would never allow.<\/p>\n

Whatever the motives were for getting rid of Dilma, illegality and corruption plainly had nothing to do with it. Just look at this week\u2019s Senate report, or the face of the person they\u2019ve installed, to see how true that is.<\/p>\n

Clarification: this article was edited on July 1 to reflect that the 41% salary increase just approved was for employees of the judicial branch, to be made in installments over four years as compensation for prior years of lost wages; the bill to increase the salaries of Supreme Court judges is proceeding to approval<\/a> in the Congress.<\/em><\/p>\n

________________________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

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

Whatever the motives were for getting rid of Dilma, illegality and corruption plainly had nothing to do with it. Just look at this week\u2019s Senate report, or the face of the person they\u2019ve installed, to see how true that is.<\/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-75995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75995","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=75995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75995\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}