The Dilma disaster
The Dilma disaster
Mahir Ali — Published 16 minutes ago
WHEN Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez was briefly removed from power in 2002, the coup plotters installed in his stead the head of the chamber of commerce. That incongruous image sprang to mind when Dilma Roussef was replaced last week by Michel Temer. Brazil’s interim president is not the head of the chamber of commerce, but he certainly looks the part. And the all-male, all-white cabinet he has put in place only enhances the image.
One of the key reasons why there has been considerable dismay over the recent political manoeuvres in Brazil is that whereas Roussef faces an impeachment trial by a largely hostile senate ostensibly for the fairly common tactic of fiddling the figures to improve the image of state finances, most of her main accusers, including Temer, themselves stand accused of personal corruption.
In fact, Eduardo Cunha, the president of the lower house of parliament, who was instrumental in guiding the impeachment process through his chamber, was promptly removed from his duties by the nation’s supreme court once he had played his role. Temer himself, meanwhile, is a potential candidate for impeachment, and less than 2pc of Brazilians were keen on him to step in as president.
Besides, although the moves against Roussef were carried overwhelmingly in both the lower house and the senate, it is worth reflecting on the fact that some of her more vociferous opponents dedicated their votes to the putrid military regime that ran Brazil from 1964 and 1971, and one of them specifically mentioned Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, a particularly notorious torturer whose victims included Roussef.
More:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1259013/the-dilma-disaster
[center]
The man who personally tortured Dilma Rousseff in prison,
personally glorified in recent impeachment session in the
Lower House by Brazil's rabid right-wing politicians. [/center]
