12 May 2016
The Full Brazilian
Politics stripped naked; a hot and painful process.
By Neil Tidmarsh
I can’t keep up. These Latin American rhythms are much too fast for me. I’ve always been a rubbish dancer. The Samba, the Bosa Nova, and now this rapidly-changing and complex dança which the politicians of Brazil are following through their Upper and Lower Chambers…
The impassioned dance-off between President Rousseff and her enemies has been going on for some months. Accusations that she deceived the electorate over the state of the economy prior to her re-election, and that she financed her election campaign illegally, surfaced last year. These accusations, and the deterioration of the Brazilian economy, brought out millions of demonstrators all over the country, calling for her resignation. Earlier this year, her biggest coalition ally, the PMDB party, pulled out of the government. And last month, a special parliamentary committee voted for her impeachment over those allegations that she manipulated federal accounts to hide the country’s budget deficit just before the last elections. The proceedings began in Congress (the lower house) which voted by 367 to 137 for her impeachment. They are about to pass to the Senate (the upper house); if a simple majority of the 81 senators votes for impeachment, she will then stand down for her trial (which could last for up to 6 months) with senators finally voting for or against her removal. A judge has called for the same proceedings to be brought against her vice president, Michel Temer, on the same charges. Tens of thousands of protestors have gathered outside the Congress buildings, demonstrating for or against her.
So far, so relatively straightforward – simple steps which even a clod-hopping dancer like myself ought to be able to follow. But the dark and dramatic beat of widespread corruption has added layers of complexity to this rhythm.
The President’s political opponents include the speaker of Congress, Eduardo Cunha, and the head of the Senate, Renan Calheiros. These two have been instrumental in launching the impeachment proceedings against her. But they themselves have been under investigation for some time, about allegations connected to the bribery and corruption scandals engulfing the state-run energy company Petrobras. And this week, Eduardo Cunha was actually suspended from congressional duties by a supreme court judge, following those investigations and also allegations of obstruction and witness intimidation. This suspension resulted in some dazzling developments in the rapidity and complexity of the dance’s footwork. His acting replacement as speaker of the lower house, Waldir Maranhao, promptly annulled the lower house’s recent impeachment vote against President Rousseff. The speaker of the senate insisted that the imminent impeachment vote in the upper house would still go ahead, nevertheless, and steps were begun to seek a legal annulment of Mr Maranhau’s annulment. Only a day later Mr Maranhau back-tracked and cancelled his annulment himself.
Still keeping up?
President Rousseff has claimed that the impeachment proceedings amount to a right-wing coup d’etat against her and her democratically-elected government. She claims that she is being persecuted politically for her left-wing ideals and revolutionary background, and personally for being a woman. And she points out that the opponents who are calling for her political blood are being investigated about charges much more serious than the ones she is facing.
Nevertheless, even she is having some difficulty distancing herself from the massive Petrobras scandal. She is a protégé of ex-president Luiz Inacio da Silva, who is also being investigated about allegations of bribery and corruption in connection with it. She recently offered him a cabinet post in her government. Many saw this as an attempt to give him immunity from prosecution. Her vice president Michel Temer has also been questioned about claims of bribery and corruption involving Petrobas construction contracts, as was her former finance minister Guido Mantega only last week.
It’s beginning to look less like a dance and more like a fight to the death. The Samba and the Bosa Nova are clearly the wrong references here; instead we should be thinking about Capoeira, the deadly martial art developed in previous centuries by Brazilian slaves and ex-slaves who disguised it as a dance so they could secretly practice it under the very noses of their oppressors. And to get to the heart of the matter we have to look under the political surface to find out who is really striking the blows, who is really playing the music to which the politicians are being impelled to dance.
In many ways Brazil appears to be in melt-down. The government is being toppled; the zika virus is a nightmare; the economy is going backwards; the Petrobras scandal is engulfing the business and political life of the country; the Olympic Games are imminent but the facilities are far from ready. But one element of civil society is holding firm; the judiciary. Lawyers, judges, investigators and prosecutors are proving themselves fearless and determined in their efforts to combat corruption and uphold the rule of law.
The most astonishing thing about Brazil at the moment isn’t the extent of the Petrobras scandal; it’s that it’s out in the open and that rigorous steps are being taken to combat it. No one, however rich or powerful, appears to be immune from the efforts of brave anti-corruption judges like Sergio Moro, who was adamant that a current president should not be allowed to give an ex-president protection from the law. It was he who claimed that President Rousseff was trying to block investigations into the bribery scandal at Petrobas by offering ex-President Lula da Silva the position of cabinet chief, which would have given him immunity from prosecution by all but Supreme Court judges. Judge Moro released transcripts of tapped phone calls as evidence; at his request, a federal court issued an injunction to stop Lula da Silva’s appointment. Other prosecutors investigating the Petrobas scandal are looking at building contracts for the Olympics and the 2014 World Cup; a court has blocked state funding to one of the Olympic venues. And Marcello Oderbrecht, the former head of the Oderbrecht construction group, has been sentenced to 19 years in jail for corruption and money laundering in connection with Petrobras contracts. A president impeached, a speaker of the Congress suspended, a leader of the Senate under investigation, the CEO of Latin America’s biggest construction company imprisoned. Wealth, influence or high political office appear to be no defence against justice and the Supreme Court.
Even a martial art disguised as a dance isn’t the right metaphor for what’s going on in Brazil; think instead of a full Brazilian, a hot wax treatment stripping the body politic completely naked, a thorough and painful process to remove everything right down to the raw skin of political and commercial innocence.
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