Tone deaf decisions deepen challenges for Brazil's president Peter Prengaman and Mauricio Savarese,
Tone deaf decisions deepen challenges for Brazil's president
Peter Prengaman and Mauricio Savarese, Associated Press Updated 4:01 pm, Wednesday, January 4, 201
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — His country mired in recession, Brazilian President Michel Temer's government ordered more than $400,000 worth of food, including 500 cartons of Haagen-Dazs ice cream and nearly 1.5 tons of chocolate cake, for his official plane trips in 2017 only to cancel the order hours later amid public outrage.
The ostentatious shopping list published Dec. 27 was the latest in a series of seemingly tone deaf decisions that have put his already wobbly government on the defensive, raising questions about whether it can survive the new year.
The food flap came a month after Temer, rather than rush to comfort grieving families, spent days debating whether even to attend the memorial for the victims of a plane crash in Colombia that killed nearly an entire Brazilian soccer team.
The missteps have pushed approval ratings for the 75-year-old career politician down to around 10 percent, weakening his hand as he fights corruption allegations that could force him from power less than a year after taking office following the impeachment and ouster of his predecessor, Dilma Rousseff.
More:
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Tone-deaf-decisions-deepen-challenges-for-10834773.php
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