|
 Dilma Rousseff, Brazilian president Lula da Silva's cabinet chief, claimed that several political groups and activists are interested in eroding the president's image and advancing the presidential elections scheduled for October 2006.
In an interview with the O Globo network and a few hours after taking office, the Brazilian "Iron Lady" as she has been described by the Brazilian press, said that the alleged corruption claims involving high ranking officials of the Lula administration and his Workers Party are "entirely electoral, political".
Last week,José Dirceu the once all powerful advisor and brain master behind President Lula's victory in 2002 resigned as cabinet chief, - and returned to Congress - following allegations from a small coalition party president Congressman Roberto Jefferson that he was directly involved in a network of bribes in Congress to assure support for the administration's legislative agenda.
However the Lula da Silva administration and the Workers Party highlight that so far no evidence of the charges has been presented and the accusers have been accused of irregularities and are under investigation.
"All claims must be investigated, and those found guilty must be punished", said Ms. Rousseff, adding that the "government must keep away from these political turbulences" and concentrate in ruling.
"The crisis is in the right hands", said Ms. Rousseff in direct reference to the Justice Department, Police and Congressional investigation committees, insisting that the situation is "clearly political since financial markets and investors have not reacted to the scandalous allegations".
Following on President Lula da Silva's recent statements Ms. Rousseff said the current political crisis should help Brazil advance in a "deep reform of the political system" so as to end with common practices such as "party fleeing" and lack of party loyalty.
However during one of the investigation committee summons, a top official from the Brazilian Post Office filmed when allegedly taking bribes said the companies involved in the racket had been suggested to him by Luiz Gushiken, Communications Secretary of the Brazilian Executive and belonging to the Workers Party.
Furthermore for the first time an opposition Congress member confirmed that she had been offered by a colleague from the ruling coalition a monthly "subsidy" of US$ 13,000 to change party and help with the legislative agenda.
In Congress an extreme right Deputy and former Army officer Jair Bolsorano asked for President Lula da Silva'a removal from office and described the incoming Cabinet Chief Ms. Rousseff as "a technician, expert in robbing and assaulting", referring to her past as an urban guerrilla in the seventies.
"She was part of a gang that raided and assaulted my house in Rio do Janeiro" said Mr. Bolsorano and enigmatically cautioned, "Dilma Rousseff, for now I won't talk about your past, but if you react I will expose you".
Ms. Rousseff was captured and tortured in the seventies by the Brazilian military government before been exiled overseas.
"The tortures suffered by the Minister were the result of abstinences and I will soon be talking about it here in Congress," threatened Deputy Bolsorano.
The member of the small Progressive Party was involved in an incident and scuffle with other members when Mr. Dirceu in his first speech to Congress warned that he will demand all those who accuse him without evidences.
Mr. Bolsorano interrupted Mr. Dirceu several times calling him "terrorist", recalling that the former cabinet chief had also been a guerrilla in the seventies taking refuge in Cuba.
This article appeared originally in Mercopress - www.mercopress.com.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.