La agonía que asfixia a Brasil desde el controvertido proceso que culminó con la salida de la presidenta Dilma Rousseff, en agosto de 2016, ha llegado a su punto más alto. El miércoles 17 de mayo, el diario O Globo reveló una grabación en la que Joesley Batista —dueño del mayor frigorífico del mundo, JBS—, le contó al presidente Michel Temer en un encuentro personal que pagaba una mensualidad al exdiputado Eduardo Cunha en la cárcel. Cunha, aliado de Temer, es el extodopoderoso presidente la Cámara de Diputados que lideró el proceso de destitución de Rousseff y terminó preso por corrupción.… Seguir leyendo »
As if 134 deaths in a two-week rash of prison riots were not dramatic enough for Brazil, on January 19 a plane crash killed Teori Zavascki, the Supreme Court justice overseeing a high-profile nation-wide corruption case known as Operation Carwash, which has incriminated the upper echelons of national politics.
Brazil, as the saying goes, is not for amateurs. That’s long been true of South America’s most populous nation and biggest economy, which has seen many ups and downs since toppling its military dictatorship in 1985 – including prior impeachments and debt crisis.
But, as Brazilians are now coming to realise, things can always get worse.… Seguir leyendo »
Tres razones llevaron a Dilma Rousseff a enfrentar el impeachment que la sacó de la presidencia: la crisis económica, el avance de las investigaciones de la Operación Lava Jato sobre sus aliados, y las maniobras del expresidente de la cámara de diputados, Eduardo Cunha. Desde que Michel Temer sustituyó a Rousseff en mayo, la estabilidad de su gobierno ha estado amenazada por los mismos factores: la crisis económica, el avance de la Lava Jato (Operación Autolavado) sobre sus aliados y Eduardo Cunha. Los tres elementos, además, están estrechamente conectados.
Es por eso que la detención del extitular de diputados, el 19 de octubre, es un punto de inflexión para la Lava Jato.… Seguir leyendo »
En tan solo 35 días de gobierno interino en Brasil hasta tres de sus ministros se han visto forzados a dimitir acusados de corrupción. No existen, afortunadamente, demasiados precedentes en las democracias del mundo con este balance tan desolador en tan escaso tiempo; y más si se tiene en cuenta que este grupo de políticos y hombres de negocios fueron los promotores de un golpe de Estado institucional justificado en nombre de una pretendida recuperación moral en el ejercicio de la acción política.
El propio presidente interino, Michel Temer, tampoco se encuentra a salvo de las denuncias y sospechas por haber participado en el escándalo descubierto por lavado de dinero y sobornos en la empresa pública petrolera Petrobras.… Seguir leyendo »
Rodrigo Janot, the Brazilian attorney general heading up the biggest corruption investigation the country has ever seen, is known here as “the man who makes Brasília shiver.” This week, in his office in Brasília, he granted his first exclusive interview since 2014 to The Post’s Lally Weymouth. Janot says that he hopes the wide-ranging “car wash” probe into graft and abuse of power will ultimately result in a cleaner and less corrupt country. Excerpts:
Q: Can you talk about how the investigation began?
A: This investigation began in the southern state of Paraná and involved three illegal exchange operators.
After Dilma Rousseff was removed from Brazil’s presidency in May facing charges of administrative misconduct, Vice President Michel Temer became interim president. He set out to hire a first-rate economic team to guide Brazil out of its recession, but “Operation Car Wash,” a sprawling federal corruption investigation that began with sweetheart contracts from the state oil company, has already forced three of his ministers to resign. In his Brasilia office, Temer granted his first foreign interview since taking over to The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth. They discussed the Olympics, Zika and the presidential crisis. Edited excerpts follow.
Three of your cabinet members have already been forced to resign due to corruption allegations.… Seguir leyendo »
Latin America was synonymous with political instability throughout the 20th century. The specter of military coups faded in the 1980s, yet political crises -- like the one now engulfing Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff -- still plague the region.
If Rousseff loses her looming impeachment battle over claims of illegal accounting, she will be the 18th elected Latin American president since 1985 (excluding Haiti) forced to leave office by means other than the ballot box. And the second Brazilian president since Fernando Collor de Mello resigned under threat of impeachment in 1992.
When the military stays in the barracks and presidential ousters follow the constitutional rules, it is tempting to see this as a good sign for democracy.… Seguir leyendo »
The story of Brazil’s political crisis, and the rapidly changing global perception of it, begins with its national media. The country’s dominant broadcast and print outlets are owned by a tiny handful of Brazil’s richest families, and are steadfastly conservative. For decades, those media outlets have been used to agitate for the Brazilian rich, ensuring that severe wealth inequality (and the political inequality that results) remains firmly in place.
Indeed, most of today’s largest media outlets – that appear respectable to outsiders – supported the 1964 military coup that ushered in two decades of rightwing dictatorship and further enriched the nation’s oligarchs.… Seguir leyendo »
Brazil took a major step toward the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff on Sunday when the lower house of Congress voted to send her case to the Senate, which will almost certainly refer her for a trial. It now looks likely that the president will be removed from office and replaced by Michel Temer, her vice president. Ms. Rousseff’s supporters are furious, her opponents are overjoyed, and Brazil’s corrupt politicians are breathing a sigh of relief.
In the hourslong televised session on Sunday, members of Congress explained their decisions as they voted for impeachment: They voted “for peace in Jerusalem,” “for the truckers,” “for the Free Masons of Brazil” and “because of the Communism that threatens this country.”… Seguir leyendo »
Toute personne qui aurait quitté le Brésil en 2011 pour ne revenir que maintenant croirait s’être trompée de pays. Il n’y a plus rien de cette nation qui se voyait au milieu d’un mouvement irrésistible dans la position de cinquième économie mondiale et dont la présidente atteignait des sommets de popularité.
Un pays qui se vantait d’avoir surmonté la crise de 2008 dès 2009 et qui apparaissait comme la seule puissance émergente dotée d’une réelle démocratie. Celui qui revient aujourd’hui au Brésil trouve, au contraire, un pays au bord d’un coup d’Etat, immergé dans une crise économique sans précédent et dont la population, coupée en deux, s’affronte dans les rues.… Seguir leyendo »
El fin de semana pasado cientos de miles de brasileños salieron a las calles para protestar en contra del gobierno y enviar un mensaje a la clase política: nadie es intocable.
Es algo que los políticos de Brasil deberían tomar en serio. A inicios de este mes, la Policía Federal detuvo temporalmente al expresidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva para interrogarlo sobre una enorme –y cada vez mayor– investigación de corrupción. La Presidenta Dilma Rousseff, la sucesora elegida por Da Silva, podría ser la siguiente.
El caso de corrupción que investigan las autoridades ocurrió de 2003 a 201o, durante los dos períodos de Lula.… Seguir leyendo »
Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians took to the streets over the weekend to protest their government and to send a message to the country’s political class: No one is untouchable.
Brazil’s politicians should take that to heart. The Federal Police temporarily detained Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former president, for questioning earlier this month in connection with a huge — and expanding — graft investigation. President Dilma Rousseff, Mr. da Silva’s handpicked successor, could be next.
The corruption scheme under investigation unfurled from 2003 to 2010, during Mr. da Silva’s two terms in office. Prosecutors allege that during that time Brazil’s biggest construction firms; the state-controlled oil giant, Petrobras; and the country’s political leaders traded bribes, padded contracts and political support in a vast, mutually beneficial scheme.… Seguir leyendo »
La detención este viernes del expresidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva se suma a una serie de hechos que han deteriorado la imagen del partido político, otrora sindicato, como autor del milagro económico brasilero. En los trece años que esta agrupación ha administrado el poder ejecutivo, la situación económica del país ha dado un giro copernicano.
Según estadísticas de la CEPAL y el Fondo Monetario Internacional, durante este periodo la pobreza se redujo casi 17 puntos porcentuales y la pobreza extrema se contrajo hasta llegar al 6,1%. La tasa de desempleo alcanzó cifras envidiables (5,5%) y el Índice de Gini, que mide la desigualdad, también presentó mejoras sustantivas.… Seguir leyendo »
South America is a vast continent of light, yet it has a dark soul. Nestled in its political class, like a snake from the rain forest, corruption poisons the core of government.
Badly needed resources are siphoned from public purposes to run the machinery of political parties. Pervasive and systemic, corruption is sanctioned by a culture of impunity from the top.
Until recently, this shield from prying eyes has been particularly strong in the economic powerhouses of Brazil and Argentina — though that may be changing. Lately, especially in Brazil, high public officials accused of corruption have been paraded almost daily through the media and the courts.… Seguir leyendo »
Cuando el Partido de la Justicia y el Desarrollo (AKP) desafió a los entendidos y encuestadores y recuperó la mayoría parlamentaria en las elecciones generales del 1 de noviembre en Turquía, los mercados financieros vitorearon. Al día siguiente, la bolsa de valores de Estambul subió más del 5 % y la lira turca tuvo un repunte.
Parece no importar que en estos días sea difícil encontrar a alguien en los círculos empresariales o financieros que pueda decir algo bueno sobre Recep Tayyip Erdoğan o el AKP que lideró antes de asumir la presidencia en 2014. Y no nos equivoquemos: aunque se supone que el presidente turco debe estar por encima de las políticas partidarias, es Erdoğan quien en gran medida lleva las riendas.… Seguir leyendo »
Brazil is enduring one of its most acute crises since the return of democracy in the 1980s. Amid a sharp economic downturn, the combination of growing popular discontent and a massive corruption scandal involving state-controlled oil giant Petrobras and major construction companies has prevented President Dilma Rousseff’s administration from being able to govern effectively.
The remainder of Rousseff’s second term looks bleak. A lingering recession and expected rise in unemployment are likely to keep the political environment tense. Protests and strikes will occur more frequently. Add an austerity agenda, political bickering in congress and a somewhat unpredictable corruption scandal, and Rousseff will have a difficult time advancing the country’s economic recovery.… Seguir leyendo »
Volvieron a las calles de Brasil, por cientos de miles, el 15 de marzo, como en junio del 2013. Pero no es la misma calle, aunque la corrupción política sigue siendo el centro de la protesta. No es la misma calle por lo que piden ni por quienes lo piden. Piden la destitución de la presidenta Dilma Rousseff, del Partido de los Trabajadores (PT), reelegida en octubre pasado. Piden menos intervención del Gobierno, menos impuestos, menos sistema público, más privatización económica. Y piden un cambio del sistema político, incluyendo a todos los partidos en la corrupción, aunque algunos sectores salvan a Aécio Neves, derrotado opositor de Dilma Rousseff.… Seguir leyendo »
Columbus, Ohio, is a long way from Brasilia, but thanks to a bunch of angry seniors and a lot of muck, these distant compass points in the Americas are now on a collision course.
This week, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine filed a motion on behalf of state pensioners over losses on investments in the corruption-riddled Brazilian oil major, Petrobras.
“The allegations against Petrobras are so egregious we have no choice but to take action on behalf of Ohio’s public employees and retirees," DeWine told reporters in Columbus on Feb. 9.
Ohio is the latest plaintiff to pile on in a widening class action case against Latin America's premier state-owned oil major, where evidence of pillage grows by the day.… Seguir leyendo »
We Brazilians suffer from a curious cognitive dysfunction, which occurs with the same frequency in our population as lactose intolerance does among the Japanese, or the inclination for punning among the English. We have the ability to be outraged by corruption, while engaging in our own petty versions of it.
As the second round of presidential voting approaches on Sunday, this evil is spreading like an epidemic. In bars, on the streets and on social networks, advocates of Dilma Rousseff, the Workers Party candidate for re-election, and Senator Aécio Neves, of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, never tire of reminding us of the “robberies” that their rivals commit.… Seguir leyendo »
Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, the ambitious president of FIFA, must be pulling his few remaining hairs out of his head because his dreams of taking the so-called Beautiful Game to world sports domination are turning to nightmares. New squalid facts, claims and rumors are emerging every week suggesting that the game may be beautiful but some of its leading figures are too close to dark and shadowy criminal forces.
In Brazil, you might think there would be general rejoicing. Brazil is described as the spiritual home of soccer because of the exhilarating talent of its players. Brazil is the host of the World Cup that kicked off Thursday, and most pundits predict that Brazil will pick up its sixth World Cup championship when the final is played on July 13.… Seguir leyendo »
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