Meu artigo no The Guardian:
Brazilian politicians celebrate the vote to launch impeachment proceedings against President Rousseff. Photograph: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images (The Guardian)
Yes, this may be a coup against democracy: but for the country’s sake Rouseff’s Workers’ party must own up its own role in corruption
When Brazil’s congress voted yesterday to launch impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, democracy took the form of a farce. The attempt to remove the democratically elected president – who won 54 million votes and is not charged with any crimes – was led by a man accused of corruption and money laundering: Eduardo Cunha, the speaker of the lower house. On this historic day, Brazilians learned a dangerous lesson about their young democracy: their votes aren’t worth much.
With 367 of the 513 deputies backing impeachment, Rousseff may now be removed from office for delaying fund transfers to state banks so that the government’s finances would appear healthier than they are, and for allegedly violating budget laws. Brazil’s leaders have often resorted to this budgetary trick. Unlike the president, a good share of those who voted to oust her are under investigation for crimes ranging from corruption to the use of slave labour.
If the senate – the upper house – now decides to carry out an impeachment trial, Rousseff will be suspended for a maximum of 180 days and the vice-president – Michel Temer, known in Brazil as the “vice conspirator” – will take over. If Rousseff is convicted, Temer (like Cunha, a member of the conservative Democratic Movement party, or PMDB) will stay.
Temer’s latest betrayal of his former running mate was an inventive wiretap – of himself. Assuming Rousseff would be ousted, days before the vote he used WhatsApp to “accidentally” send a recording of his proposed victory speech to party cohorts, announcing what his plans would be as president. To borrow the biblical images so popular in congress, compared to Temer, Judas is a rookie.
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