First Interview With Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff Since the Senate’s Impeachment Vote

Written on May 22nd, 2016 in politics Comments Off

Published on ZNet (first on The Intercept), by Dilma Rousseff and Glenn Greenwald, May 21, 2016 [VIDEO 23.21 min]. https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/first-interview-with-brazils-president-dilma-rousseff-since-the-senates-impeachment-vote/

Last Thursday, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was suspended from the presidency when the Senate voted, 55-22, to try her on the impeachment charges, approved by the lower house, involving alleged budgetary maneuvers (“pedaladas”) designed to obscure the size of public debt … //

…GG: On the day after the Senate voted, [Supreme Court] Justice Gilmar Mendes suspended the investigation of Aécio Neves, defeated by you in the last election. Many people saw that and thought, “The court is behaving like a political actor. The suspension paves the way to bury the Car Wash investigation.” Would you agree with that? What does this suspension mean?

  • DR: I think the suspension is strange; as far as I know, no proceedings have been suspended up until now. No Car Wash investigations have been suspended. But Justice Gilmar Mendes is not the only judge on the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is composed of 12 [sic] members. Not all of the 12 [sic] members have similar dispositions, that of a real militant, an obvious militant, as Judge Gilmar Mendes does. His actions will be judged over time by the Brazilian people.

GG: Do you think there’s a risk …

  • DR: We should not have double standards in our country. If you’re investigating one, you have to investigate them all. No one should be spared from the investigations.

GG: Do you think there’s a risk, after you leave office — if it comes to that — that Operation Car Wash will be swept under the carpet?

  • DR: That might be a threat, but I believe that there are many parties interested in the continuation of the Car Wash investigation.
  • So I don’t think that it will be simple to bury Operation Car Wash. I am more concerned about reverting back to the previous situation, in which the prosecutor general was not chosen from a list of three nominees, but was selected on the basis of their political alignment, which led to lots of inquiries being “filed away.” So much so that the prosecutor general of the republic became known as the “filing clerk of the republic.”
  • After President Lula took office — and I carried on the same practice — what procedure did we adopt? We generally chose the first name on the three-nominee list. Why? To give the Prosecutor’s Office more investigative autonomy and to stop the filing away of inquiries. I believe that there is a structure today — the Prosecutor’s Office, the Federal Police, and segments of the judiciary branch, like the Supreme Court and the Superior Court of Justice — that is willing to undertake investigations. Now, no institution is immune to the political process. They all suffer the consequences of the country’s political climate … //

… (full long interview text).

Links:

Thousands march against GMO giant Monsanto as Bayer take over looms (PHOTOS, VIDEO), on RT, May 21, 2016;

March against Monsanto, global protests LIVE UPDATES, on RT, May 21, 2016;

Taddeï, le vendredi, c’est fini, dans Médiapart.fr, par Gabrielle Teissier K., le 21 mai 2016;

Media, US-Friendly Elites Responsible for Brazil’s Coup – Lula, on The Dawn, May 20, 2016;

The petroyuan is the big bet of Russia and China, on Voltairenet.org, by Ariel Noyola Rodríguez, May 20, 2016;

Un Genevois vit son rêve d’apesanteur en Russie, dans la Tribune de Genève, par Frédéric Thomasset, le 20 mai 2016;

L’automatisation, une révolution bien modeste, dans l’Hebdo.ch, par Cédric Tille, le 20 mai 2016;

Le Conseil des droits de l’homme fête une décennie de mascarade, dans la Tribune de Genève/la revue des Blogs, par Jean-François Mabut, le 20 mai 2016;

La mutation du monde du travail a déjà commencé, dans SWI swissinfo.ch, par Duc-Quang Nguyen et Samuel Jaberg, le 20 mai 2016;

Like blockchain? Will you love “Fedcoin”? dans Banking Exchange, by Steve Cocheo, May 20, 2016 – just a theory now, but someday governments might issue digital currencies themselves:

En politique, je fais partie des Verts avant d’être musulmane, dans Protest Info.ch, Interview de Lucia Dahlab, Genève, par Carole Pirker, le 20 mai 2016;

Faut-il craindre le chômage technologique? dans Boursorama, le 19 mai 2016;

Le pétroyuan est le grand pari de la Russie et de la Chine, dans Voltairenet.org, par Ariel Noyola Rodríguez, le 19 mai 2016;

Canada: Quels sont les impacts d’omettre de déclarer la totalité de vos revenus? dans Journal de Montreal, par André Boulais, le 19 mai 2016;

The Vote Bremain Camp goes into Hysterical Hyper Drive, on Dissident Voice, by Dylan Murphy, May 19, 2016: as the Western Elites interfere in the Brexit Referendum;

Just when you thought the whole world was rotten … I Am His Hands, He Is My Eyes, on Axis of Logic, by Abby Zimet, May 16, 2016: enough slime this week. Now meet two men from the Chinese village of Yeli who have made the most of it. Jia Haixia is blind; his best friend Jia Wenqi lost his arms as a child. Since 2002, they have spent their days planting trees for the environment and for future generations. Despite their respective hardships, they say, when we work together, two become one …;

US: When Socialists Won Elections (and Where), on LAWCHA.org, by James Gregory, May 5, 2016

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