Brazil Coup: The First of Many Blows Against the People

Written on May 17th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

Published on teleSUR, by João Feres Júnior, May 13, 2016.

Dilma is gone and it is very unlikely that she will ever return to power. The question that everybody is asking now is: what is going to happen to Brazil in the near future?  

Understanding the impeachment case against Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff is much easier if you have already watched the documentary series “Making a murderer.” The analogy is very direct. Like Steven Avery, Dilma is being accused of a crime and despite the fact that there is no sound evidence that she has committed it, the jury was bound to convict her. Thus, the whole debate about whether the impeachment is legal or not misses the point that in the Brazilian legal system, as well as in the American and others, someone can indeed be unjustly convicted of a crime even if legal procedure is duly followed.

The analogy stops here, though. Differently from Avery’s trial, Dilma’s jurors, the federal deputies and senators who voted for the impeachment case to proceed, resulting in her suspension from office, do not seem to care about her being guilty or not. In fact, many of them preferred to “dedicate” their vote to their family, community of origin, or God instead of referring to the subject matter of the impeachment case: wrongful fiscal management. Others cited the Car Wash corruption scandal involving the state-run oil company Petrobras as a reason for the impeachment, even though the impeachment case presented before Congress is not related to it. The fact that 303 out of 513 representatives in Brazil’s chamber of deputies are being currently investigated for corruption and that 49 of the 81 senators are in a similar situation gives this concerted action against Rousseff, who herself has never been charged with corruption, overtones of hypocrisy and surrealism.

In a word, Rousseff was the victim of a political coup disguised as a legal trial. And the plot paid out. Following constitutionally-defined impeachment procedures, she stepped out after today’s vote in the Senate and was replaced by Vice President Michel Temer for a period of up to 180 days or until the trial in the senate takes its course, which is likely to be rather soon. If she is finally convicted, an almost certain outcome, Temer will remain in office. In fact, he has already announced his 23-ministry cabinet, which displays a markedly conservative profile … //

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Related Links on teleSUR:

Links:

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Garo Paylan: Turkey’s voice of the voiceless, on Al-Ahram weekly online, by Nora Koloyan-Keuhnelian, May 12, 2016: after the attack on an Armenian MP in the Turkish parliament, the Istanbul Human Rights Association has urged that action be taken against any similar attacks: after videos on social media went viral the past weeks showing fisticuffs breaking out between Turkish parliamentarians as they fought over a proposal to lift immunity from prosecution, Istanbul’s Human Rights Association’s Committee Against Racism and Discrimination has complained to the speaker of the assembly demanding that such actions not be repeated …;

CIC Official Trolls Hedge Fund Managers, Short Sellers, on Value Walk, by Brendan Byrne, May 11, 2016;

France: Et si on censurait la Ve république en 2017? dans AgoraVox.fr, par Solon le jeune, le 11 mai 2016: les députés refusent de censurer le gouvernement, au peuple de censurer les politiciens;

How to Share the Benefits of Technology, on Knowledge.edu, by Eduardo Rodriguez-Montemayor, May 11, 2016;

Sovereign Funds Augmented Direct Energy Investments in 2015, on SWFI, MAy 11, 2016;

Unless we think imaginatively, benefits will be consigned to history, on The Guardian, by Tom Clark, May 11, 2016: rather than fight each and every cut to benefits, the left needs to a new way of making welfare viable;

Norway Dipping Into World’s Biggest Sovereign Wealth Fund Amid Low Growth, on Barron’s, by Teresa Rivas, May 11, 2016;

Book Review: Money Changes Everything, on Investing, by Brenda Jubin, May 11, 2016;

France: Utilisation du 49-3 – un déni de démocratie et un aveu de faiblesse, dans zonebourse, le 10 mai 2016;

Rich people can end poverty, on OXFAM America.org, by Gawain Kripke, May 10, 2016;

Der fehlende Part – uploaded by RT Deutsch:

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