#BRAZIL - BOLSONARO, MORO, GUEDES, PONTES IN USA AND Brazil Supreme Court Ruling a Blow to Corruption Probe (from VOA)
SOURCE/LINK:https://www.voanews.com/a/brazil-supreme-court-ruling-a-blow-to-corruption-probe/4830158.html
Brazil Supreme Court Ruling a Blow to Corruption Probe
SAO PAULO —
Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that corruption cases involving illegal campaign donations should be handled by electoral courts, a move that some prosecutors warned could hurt their groundbreaking crusade against graft.
Six justices on the nation’s top court cast votes in favor of sending to electoral courts all cases involving politicians who use money gained through corruption or money laundering for campaigns, rather than having them heard by federal criminal courts. Five justices opposed the decision.
Prominent federal prosecutors warned that could unwind the five years of work carried out during the landmark “Car Wash” corruption investigation, which has sent scores of powerful politicians and businessmen to jail in the world’s biggest graft probe of its kind.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva leaves for the cemetery to attend the funeral of his 7-year-old grandson, in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, March 2, 2019.
Many illegal campaign donations
Many of the Car Wash convictions, including that of imprisoned former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, involved illegal campaign donations as an aspect of the case. Prosecutors argue that could open the door for Lula and other convicts to ask the top court to annul their sentences and send their cases to dedicated electoral courts.
“For those who have committed these crimes, this will really be a prize,” Deltan Dallagnol, the lead prosecutor overseeing the Car Wash investigation, said in a written statement.
“Defense lawyers for these people will argue their crime was related to illegal campaign financing ... to move the case to electoral courts and lessen the chances of a successful investigation and serious punishment.”
Senator Olimpio Gomes, a strong ally of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who was elected on an anti-corruption platform, tweeted just after the decision that he had already introduced a bill to reverse it. The bill would “guarantee the fight against organized crime, corruption and impunity,” he said.
Others backed the majority in the Supreme Court ruling, saying their argument adhered to the Brazilian constitution.
Former Judge Sergio Moro participates in an anti-corruption conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Nov. 23, 2018.
‘Not prepared’
Brazil’s unique electoral justice system is made up of a rotating cast of state and federal judges that handle an array of campaign disputes surrounding local, state and national elections every two years.
Critics argue that makes them less prepared than federal criminal courts to address the country’s political graft schemes uncovered in recent years.
Justice Minister Sergio Moro, who before taking his government post was the federal judge who spearheaded the Car Wash trials and sent Lula to jail, said Wednesday that the Supreme Court sending the cases to an electoral court would be a blow for the country’s push against impunity.
“Electoral courts ... are not prepared to judge more complex crimes, such as money laundering and corruption,” Moro said.
Carlos Melo, a political scientist with Sao Paulo business school Insper, agreed with Moro’s assessment of the electoral courts. However, he said the constitution clearly states that crimes connected to illegal campaign financing must be judged by electoral courts.
“Will this hurt the Car Wash investigation? Sure, it is a blow. But the prosecutors have ridden a wave of wins, jailed powerful figures like Lula, and there is the sense they want to have everything go their way,” Melo said.
If Brazilians want to make prosecutors’ work easier, they will have to find other ways, he said.
“It is now up to Brazilian society to pressure lawmakers and demand changes to the law,” he said. “Or they can demand that the electoral courts are strengthened so they can deal with these types of cases.”
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SOUCE/LINK: https://www.as-coa.org/articles/tracking-first-100-days-brazilian-president-jair-bolsonaro
Americas Society
Council of the Americas
Uniting opinion leaders to exchange ideas and create solutions to the challenges of the Americas todayTracking the First 100 Days of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro
Jair Bolsonaro. (AP)
March 18, 2019
On October 28, Jair Bolsonaro’s
decisive victory shifted Brazil to the right when he broke the Workers’
Party electoral winning streak. A pro-gun former army captain and
Social Liberal Party (PSL) congressman, he won with pledges to crack down on crime and corruption, a rejection of the status quo, and nostalgia for the country’s military rule.
Before taking office, Bolsonaro signaled what’s to come by selecting key members of his cabinet, including Lava Jato judge Sergio Moro for the Justice Ministry, University of Chicago-trained Paulo Guedes for the Economy Ministry, and an evangelical pastor to head the Women, Family, and Human Rights Ministry, Damares Alves. Bolsonaro’s cabinet contains the largest number of former members of the military since the country’s return to democracy.
AS/COA Online tracks the first 100 days of the Bolsonaro presidency,
with regular updates of the big stories defining the new government’s
path in Latin America’s largest country.
Note: This article was initially published on January 4, 2019. It has been updated as news becomes available.
Today, Bolsonaro pays a visit to the CIA on
his second day in the U.S. capital, a stop that was not originally
included in the president’s itinerary. Justice Minister Sérgio Moro, one
of the seven ministers in Bolsonaro’s delegation, will take part in the
CIA meeting, along with one of the president’s sons, São Paulo
Congressman Eduardo, who confirmed the visit this morning via Twitter. Afterwards Bolsonaro will meet with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and then deliver remarks at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
While Bolsonaro won’t meet with President Donald Trump until Tuesday,
the Brazilian president has been busy drumming up business interest and
talking up a new phase of bilateral cooperation since arriving Sunday afternoon. At last night’s dinner with conservative thought leaders like Steve Bannon, Bolsonaro discussed putting an end to leftist ideologies in his country
and compared his vision to Trump’s, saying, “I want a great Brazil just
as he wants a great U.S.A.” U.S. Security Advisor John Bolton told a
Globo reporter that Trump is very excited to welcome Bolsonaro in Washington
tomorrow, which will be the first encounter between the two presidents.
Just as Bolsonaro is proud to be called the Trump of the Tropics,
Bolton said: “Trump is the Bolsonaro of North America.” Meanwhile, the
Bolsonaro administration could well announce that it will drop visa requirements for Americans visiting Brazil (see Day 74).
In other news, the era of combatting corruption in Brazil reached a milestone yesterday when Lava Jato marked its five-year anniversary.
Since the widespread corruption investigations into state-owned oil
company Petrobras started in 2014, there have been 285 convictions
amounting to a cumulative 3,000 years of prison sentences. Another 300
cases remain open in the Federal Supreme Court.
The Bolsonaro administration held its first auction today, with concessions to 12 airports yielding nearly $630 million for the government, an average premium of 986 percent. The airports will be managed by foreign groups and were auctioned in three regional blocks. Nearly 20 million passengers a year pass through the airports, representing 9.5 percent of the domestic market.
But government auctions didn’t rock the country this week like did gun policy debate. In the wake of Wednesday’s massive shooting in Suzano near São Paulo—counting eight deaths, including the two shooters who were former students trying to mimic the U.S. Columbine massacre—congressmen debated Bolsonaro’s gun policy (See Day 15) and the government’s intention to pass legislation allowing people to carry guns in public. One senator from PSL, Major Olímpio, said that if teachers and staff were armed while
working the massacre would be avoided. Bolsonaro was criticized for
taking nearly seven hours to say something about the shooting, but the president offered condolences to the victms' families on a Facebook Live Thursday evening.
In other news, the president is preparing to travel to the United States on
Sunday, when he plans to consolidate his government’s ties to the
country. Bolsonaro is set to announce that American citizens no longer
need a visa to travel to Brazil, and Foreign Policy Ministry Ernesto Araújo said the government also wants to negotiate the end of visa requirements to Brazilians going to the United States. Bolsonaro and Trump are expected to discuss topics
such as Venezuela, trade, China, and who will fill embassy posts in
both countries. Also on the agenda are Brazil-U.S. technology
partnerships, in particular a new agreement reached on the Alcântara satellite launch base, which was finally concluded this month after decades in the making.
Brazil’s Supreme Court rules today on a portion of Sérgio Moro’s anti-crime law. (See Days 35 and 50).
The court is discussing if common crimes connected with elections
should be judged by the country’s electoral court or not. In his
legislation package, Moro asks for illegal operations such as
embezzlement, money laundry, and corruption to be judged as regular
crimes, outside Brazil’s electoral court jurisdiction, even when they
occur in connection with a political campaign. Brazil’s electoral court also organizes the country’s votes, investigates campaign financing violations, and enforces the Clean Record Law.
Why is this important now? In case the Supreme Court decision goes
against Moro’s proposal, it could be the end of Lava Jato investigations
in Curitiba, prosecutors say. Moro said the electoral court does excellent job during elections but that it "is not well structured to handle complex crimes such as money laundry and corruption." Folha de S. Paulo reported today the electoral prosecutors’ offices and court are overloaded and did not move on “caixa dois” campaign finance violation cases brought up by Lava Jato last year.
In other news, Education Minister Ricardo Vélez fired his top secretary and several other officials in the Education Ministry after public critiques from Olavo de Carvalho, the president’s self-entitled-philosopher guru. In spite of the upheaval, Bolsonaro reiterated his support of Vélez this week.
Authorities arrested and charged two former policemen in connection with the 2018 murder of opposition Councilwoman Marielle Franco.
The arrests took place in Rio de Janeiro days before the one-year
anniversary of her death. While in office, Franco was vocal about police
killings and pushed for a legislative investigation into Rio-based
militias, many formed by police officers.
The Guardian reports one of the detained officers lives in the same gated community where Bolsonaro has a home and lived before being elected. Police say the daughter of one of the suspects dated one of Bolsonaro’s sons.
When questioned about a photo with one of the former officers,
Bolsonaro said he has many photos with millions of police officers
across the country. The president said he hoped authorities found the guilty ones
for the crime, “including the ones ordering her killing.” In Brasília,
the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) announced today that it will request a parliamentary inquiry committee—Brazil’s
legislative investigation mechanism, requiring 171 signatures to be
carried out—to investigate all militia activity in the country.
In other news, Bolsonaro’s relationship with the press has been bumpy since his campaign but this week it went a step further when he tweeted that a journalist was trying to “ruin his life.”
The tweet linked to a post from a website that supports the president
and denounced the Estado de S. Paulo reporter. The paper later said the
audio had been altered. The investigative journalism group Abraji and the country’s lawyers bar association condemned the press attack.
Brazil’s top fact-checking website Aos Fatos reported today that—after analzying 149 statements in social media, speeches, and interviews—Bolsonaro made 82 fake or distorted statements in 68 days in the government. Estadão, the website of Estado de S. Paulo, reported today that the president uses Twitter to criticize the press once every three days on average, mostly by retweeting his sons’ messages.
On the economic front, there was some good news in recent days. Economy Minister Paulo Guedes gave a lengthy interview to Estado de S. Paulo published Sunday in which he said the government needs 48 votes to approve pension reform.
He also said the government will propose a change in how the country builds its budget,
giving officials “100 percent control” of the money they manage. “We
want to develop leadership on the budget with the political class,”
Guedes said. The proposal, which should hit Congress in the coming
weeks, changes Brazil’s “federal pact”—a
law that determines the destiny of most public funds—and gives more
freedom to states, cities, and the federal government to choose how to
invest tax funds. Brazil’s Ibovespa responded with a 2.64 percent gain on Monday afternoon and the real rose against the dollar.
In a message about International Women’s Day on Twitter, Bolsonaro
promised to increase women’s representation in Brazil. The president
didn’t explain how, but said that proposals should always “respect women’s feelings”
and that his government is going to do everything they can for
women—which he called “rare jewels”—to feel more represented at the end
of his term.
Brazil does not rank high on women’s participation in politics nor in business. Today’s IBGE survey
shows that Brazilian women in leadership positions make one third of
the salary in relation to men doing the same job. Yet during an official
celebration for the date in Brasília, Bolsonaro said the number of
women in his cabinet (two of 22 ministers) is well balanced.
Bolsonaro shared a video of Women, Family, and Human Rights Minister Damares Alves
promising to address violence against women in the country. A woman is
killed every two hours in Brazil and cases denouncing femicide in the
country increased 12 percent in the last year.
Today, Alves argued that schools need to teach boys to give flowers
to women and open the door for them. “If our boys see themselves as
equal to girls, as some ideologies preached in the past,” said Alves
referring to feminism, “then some will think girls can equally take a
beating.” She explained the lessons would show women are physically different and therefore need to be loved and treated differently.
Anatomical differences between men and women were also one of the
topics of Bolsonaro’s first weekly Facebook Live videos, published on
Thursday. The president said the government will recall public health materials containing drawings of the human body and sex education for teenagers.
Besides cultural wars, Bolsonaro spent the greatest part of the video explaining a statement from early Thursday morning. While giving a speech at a naval event
in Rio de Janeiro, he said that “democracy and liberty only exist when
your armed forces want them to.” The affirmation caused outrage from the
opposition, so Bolsonaro—standing between former generals Otávio Rêgo
Barros, his spokesperson, and Minister of Institutional Security Augusto
Heleno—explained he believed the military is the guardian of
democracy.
After Carnaval showcased samba schools and foliões—the
ones enjoying the party in the streets—opposing Bolsonaro asking for
justice for the 2018 murder of opposition Councilwoman Marielle Franco, Bolsonaro wowed the world
with a tweet containing an explicit scene of one man urinating on
another while he condemned Brazil's largest tourist attraction by
saying: “This is what many street parties during Carnival have turned into.”
The whole scenario sparked outrage among Brazilians who both support and oppose the president, and #ImpeachmentBolsonaro
became a Twitter top trending topic today. Many politicians condemned
the president’s tweet and Brazilians have called for his impeachment
based on a constitutional law prohibiting a lack of decorum on the part of the president.
Culture wars have been a theme of Bolsonaro’s first days in power, given that the president ran his campaign stressing conservative ideals and Women, Family, and Human Rights Minister Damares Alves called out “ideological indoctrination of children and teenagers” in Brazil’s education system, pushing for home schooling and the end of sex education.
But other things were happening in Brazil this Ash Wednesday aside
from Bolsonaro’s polemic tweets. Brazil public banks such as Caixa and
BNDES will not be responsible for rescuing the country’s states’ coffers
this year. States such as Rio de Janeiro—which has nearly $10.4 billion
in debt with the federal government—got authorization from the
government to get financial relief from foreign banks, through loans or
by securing banks with their debt roster and oil royalties. Brazil’s
public banks, besides trying to decrease federal expenses, are not
allowed to pay for salaries or monthly expenses when loaning money to states.
The federal government said it will make $2.6 billion available to
relieve states’ debts but the amount isn’t enough to solve local
administrations’ problems. Even after negotiating their debt with the
federal governmentin 2016, half of Brazil’s states ended last year in a worse financial situation then how they started.
The presidency has increased its first two months own expenses by 16
percent in relation to the average of what other presidencies expend in
the same period in the last four years. Bolsonaro’s campaign criticized
the use of “corporate” presidency credit cards and Chief of Staff Onyx Lorenzoni defended
ending the practice for the government during the transition; however,
the presidency kept the perk and has a statement bill of $290,000,
mostly with undisclosed items. The presidency’s credit card bill for
January and February 2019 is is the second highest in four years, behind only 2014, when Dilma Rousseff’s administration spent $364,000.
In other news, Brazil’s Mining and Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque said the government is studying loosening regulations around mining in indigenous territory.
Brazil’s Constitution says mining in indigenous land can happen only
after regulation specified by Congress and popular prior consultation
with local communities. Albuquerque said the consultations are in the
making, and described these restrictions as contributing to illegal
activities and disturbing development.
Today, Bolsonaro hosts Juan Guaidó—recognized
by more than 50 countries as Venezuela’s interim president—to discuss
next steps on Brazil’s participation in Venezuela’s power transition.
Bolsonaro’s presidency has meant a change to Brazil’s previous position
in relation to Nicolás Maduro, joining the countries
recognizing his reelection as fraudulent. The federal government called
the meeting a “personal” one, meaning Guaidó is not being officially
received as a head of state. But the Venezuelan leader had access to Brazil’s federal police security and a presidential suite in a Brasília hotel.
In the meeting, Guaidó and Bolsonaro were to discuss the failed
attempt to deliver 178 tons of humanitarian aid across the Brazilian
border between the cities of Pacaraima and Santa Elena de Uairén this
past weekend (see Day 52). Venezuelan opposition leaders told Estado de S. Paulo that
Brazil’s help was disorganized. The government had only two trucks
available to deliver the aid and one of them broke down during
operations. In addition, Brazil’s demand that only Venezuelan citizens
work on the delivery made the transfer more difficult. The
food and medicine that was supposed to be delivered only managed to
advance a few meters into Venezuelan territory before violence broke
out. Maduro’s forces closed the road and repressed protesters and aid
convoys, killing at least seven people and injuring more than 100 at Venezuela’s border with both Brazil and Colombia.
Same-day update: After the meeting, Bolsonaro said in a press conference alongside Guaidó
that Brazil will help efforts to bring “clean and trustworthy
elections” to the Andean country. He also blamed two former Brazilian
presidents—alluding to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff’s
warm ties with deceased Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his
successor—for that country’s current crisis. He concluded by calling
Guaidó a brother and saying: “God is Brazilian, and Venezuelan.”
In other news, the numbers are in on Brazil’s 2018 GDP growth, which was only 1.1 percent—the same number registered in 2017. Economists say the elections and a national truckers strike in the first half of the year slowed the country’s recovery. The number heightens a sense of urgency for pension reform (see Day 52), but Economy Minister Paulo Guedes
is now facing resistance from groups such as military, civil, and road
police forces who supported Bolsonaro during the elections. After
communicating with voters on Twitter about the proposed reform and
asking for support, the president’s son, Rio de Janeiro Councilman Carlos Bolsonaro,
was flooded with messages saying the president himself retired—and
transferred to the paid military reserve—at 33 years of age and was
never backed a constitutional amendment for pensions while a legislator.
Another problem for the president was a letter Minister of Education Ricardo Vélez
sent Tuesday to all school directors ordering children, teachers, and
school staff to line up and sing the national anthem. Vélez’s letter
asked schools to film the salute including Bolsonaro’s campaign slogan
“Brazil above everything, God above everyone,” and then send the videos
to the Ministry of Education. Meeting resistance, Velez apologized for his “mistake," removing the slogan from his request. Today, the minister is sending his third version of the letter, suspending the request for videos as well.
The first poll numbers are in since Brazil’s new president took
office, evaluating his performance thus far and citizen’s perceptions
over various legislative packages introduced to Congress, from last
week’s pension reform (see Day 52) to Sergio Moro’s anti-crime project (see Day 50). The MDA poll commissioned by Brazil’s CNT transportation lobby
found 38.9 percent see the Bolsonaro administration as “positive,” 29
percent see it as regular, and 19 percent consider it negative. The
president’s personal approval ratings stand at 57.5 percent, the highest
of any Brazilian president in a CNT poll since September 2013, Dilma
Roussef’s first term, and in stark contrast to Michel Temer, who left
office with 7 percent approval.
Editor's note: This update originally and
erroneously reported that 82.7 percent of CNT poll respondents voted for
Bolsonaro in 2018. However, 82.7 percent of respondents cast a ballot
for a presidential candidate, although not necessarily for Bolsonaro.
After delivering pension reform to Congress on Wednesday, the Bolsonaro government announced plans today for extra funding
for districts of freshmen members of Congress. By funneling resources
to local projects, the government hopes to gain support for the pension
reform among the 118 new legislators.
On Wednesday night, the president said the “just” pension reform proposal will “demand more from each [Brazilian].” Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said the measure will save $320 billion over the next decade.
The constitutional reform process won’t begin until March, after Carnaval, as the lower house rules set the pace for the committee discussing the bill. On Twitter, Senate Leader Rodrigo Maia said Congress is ready to work with the president on a reform that will “change the history of our country.” Since
pension reform requires a constitutional change, the government’s
proposal needs approval by a three-fifths majority in two votes in each
house (see Day 32). Folha de São Paulo reported that support for the bill in the Chamber of Deputies is weak, and that the text will likely need to be amended to pass, with several party leaders expressing displeasure with the bill. According to O Globo, Capitão Augusto, leader of the “bullet caucus” that generally backs Bolsonaro, said challenges lie ahead.
If the reform gains approval, it would take 10 to 12 years for all
changes to be implemented. Current rules allow for workers to receive
full social security benefits if they’ve made 35 years of contributions,
regardless of retirement age. But the reform sets retirement ages of 65
for men and 62 for women. The bill includes similar changes for
teachers and public servants but does not mention the military. Changes
to pension rules for members of the military will be implemented through a separate bill to be introduced in early March, per Bolsonaro.
In other news, Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro ordered the border with Brazil closed today
to prevent foreign aid from entering his country. In coordination with
the United States, Brazil’s federal government announced this week that it would allow use of its territory for international aid to be delivered to Venezuela.
Fernanda Nunes wrote this Day 51 update.
On Tuesday, Bolsonaro sent a new anti-crime bill drafted by Justice and Security Minister Sergio Moro to Congress. The bill (see Day 35),
which also aims to fight corruption, includes penalties for “Caixa 2,”
or political campaign money that is not officially declared. Caixa 2 will not be criminalized
and treated as seriously as corruption, as Moro previously proposed,
amounting to a compromise with other members of the administration and
Congress. Moro delivered the legislative package to the Chamber of
Deputies, which plans to debate the new policy proposals alongside the pension reform expected later this week.
In the meantime, the president is dealing with fallout from his first
cabinet firing. After a weekend of tweet bashing from the president’s
son Carlos, Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency
Gustavo Bebianno was fired by the president. Bolsonaro’s stated motive was disagreement over the minister’s communications strategy. Bebianno leaked to O Globo that he had spoken to the president multiple times during his hospitalization,
against doctor’s orders and which the president denied. "I need to
apologize to Brazil for making Bolsonaro a viable presidential
candidate. I never imagined that he would be such a weak president,"
Bebianno, Bolsonaro’s former campaign head, said Sunday, referring to
the influence the president’s sons have had on the executive’s
decisions.
In other news, Brazil’s National Mining Agency (ANM) banned upstream dams similar to the one that burst and killed 169 people in Brumadinho on January 25 (see Day 28). There are 84 dams of this model
currently in operation in Brazil and 43 of them are considered to be of
“high potential damage.” ANM is requiring all dam owners to
decommission such dams by 2021 and reinforce existing downstream dams.
Brazil’s stock market woke to a 0.7 percent drop Thursday morning, despite the president’s release from the hospital after a 17-day stay (see Day 28).
With a draft of pension reform ready for Bolsonaro’s attention,
investors remain wary that there will be additional delays in passing
new legislation needed to make Brazil’s social security system more
sustainable.
In a TV interview last night, Bolsonaro said he was expecting to come
to a decision during a Thursday meeting with Minister Guedes as to
whether to send the reform draft to Congress. Meanwhile, the government
is considering different ways to ensure legislators will support the
bill. Even though Bolsonaro promised to end the habit of buying votes in
Congress, the administration is discussing offering legislators the
ability to fill some 1,000 lower, state-level government posts in exchange for support of the bill.
In other news, the Supreme Court entered its second day hearing a pair of cases
that would create temporary rules criminalizing homophobia, given the
Congress’ delay on passing legislation. Brought to the court by
Brazilian rights group ABGLT and the Popular Socialist Party, the cases
ask that the court acknowledge the “unconstitutional delay” of the
congressional bill first presented in 2001 and to set a deadline for the
Congress to make moves to ban discrimination and violence against LGBTQ
persons. Criminalization would give legal certainties to Brazil’s LGBTQ
community at a time when the president has made statements that put
their rights in doubt and as his evangelical supporters argue such laws restrict religious liberty.
Economy Minister Paulo Guedes’ interview with the Financial Times
shows him preparing to send a pension reform to Congress without
worrying much about the political debate it could set off. Guedes said
his pension package would bring savings of $350 billion
over 10 years and would be submitted to Congress “as soon as the
president gets out of the hospital bed.” He promised the bill will pass
within five months and would be followed by tax reform and a
privatization program. The minister dismissed Bolsonaro’s nationalism
when it comes to Brazil’s industry and focused on what unites him with
the president: freeing the country from the Workers' Party “socialist
burden.” He is focusing on his own technical skills as an economist to
promise “a market-driven economy instead of the failed dirigiste economy that corrupted the political order.”
Guedes has the support of congressional leaders but it’s still
unclear how many votes he’s got secured. Details of his proposal pleased
the market, but also raised questions from legislators. Valor Econômico says the leak of the pension reform bill (see Day 38) was a strategy to tweak points of disagreements ahead of the vote and gain support.
In other news, the president’s Social Liberal Party (PSL) is being
investigated by Brazil’s federal police for registering fake candidates
to receive public campaign funds. Maria de Lourdes Paixão, a PSL congressional candidate who received over $100,000 from the government for her campaign and said the money was used for printing materials, only got 274 votes.
Meanwhile, Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux suspended two lawsuits against Bolsonaro because of presidential immunity. The accusations involve inciting rape and insulting representative Maria do Rosario during a congressional session when he was a deputy in the lower house.
After suffering fevers, nausea, and other complications in the wake of his surgery to remove a colostomy bag (see Day 28), Bolsonaro’s planned February 6 discharge was cancelled and today doctors revealed the president has pneumonia. Bolsonaro’s departure “will happen when he feels physically and emotionally able to walk through the hospital doors,” his spokesperson Otávio do Rêgo Barros said.
While Bolsonaro and his constituency await his return to Brasília,
Congress awaits the government’s bill on pension reform—something Barros
says will only happen after the president is discharged. A draft version of the bill leaked this week and Estadão listed some of the measures inside,
including increasing the minimum retiring age to 65 for both men and
women, a minimum of 40 years of contributions be able to fully receive
social security, and the creation of an individual capitalization
pension system for Brazil. Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said today that
retirement rules for the military—a source of internal debate that
generated speculation over how quickly the proposal will hit
Congress—should happen at the same time as pension reform, but not as
part of the same bill. The military is responsible for nearly half of Brazil’s pension deficit. Between 2017 and 2018, the pension expenses that grew the most among the country’s public servants was that of the military, reaching nearly $11 billion.
In other news, Women, Family, and Human Rights Minister Damares Alves indicated
the need for review of the system of compensation, which was created in
2002 and set up for victims of the country’s military dictatorship. The
new government is hesitating on distributing over $2 billion to the
more than 12,700 people—including former President Dilma Rousseff—who
are waiting to find out whether they will receive reparations. Nearly 40,000 cases were granted reparations during the Lula and Rousseff presidencies.
On Monday, Justice Minister Sérgio Moro presented a
package of proposals to governors and security officials in Brasilia
that should hit Congress in the coming days. Named the Anti-Crime Law,
the package changes at least 14 pieces of legislation that focus on
fighting corruption, criminal organizations, and violent crimes. “It’s a
simple but robust project, with objective measures,” said Moro in a video released on social media, explaining that organized crime “feeds more corruption, which generates more violent crimes.”
One change is that a convicted person who loses an initial appeal can begin serving a sentence while pursing further appeals—a decision that would impact imprisoned former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Other measures include making
grand jury sentences effective immediately in case of heinous crimes
such as homicides, jail time for crimes such as using illegal campaign
funds and embezzlement, and harsher sentences for crimes involving
firearms.
In other news, after this weekend the president should feel more
optimistic about sending legislative proposals to Congress. The election
to pick the head of the Senate lasted from Friday into Saturday, but
had a result that might be the Bolsonaro administration’s most
significant victory yet. Davi Alcolumbre, a first-time
senator from Amapá state representing the right-wing Democratas party,
which is allied with the executive, will take charge of the Senate. But
while his win helps the presidency, it could also stoke strife in the Senate,
as the former leader, veteran Renan Calheiros, might deposit his
influence with the opposition. The level of turbulence around Saturday’s
election leading to Alcolumbre’s victory shows Bolsonaro’s Chief of
Staff Onyx Lorenzoni might have unconventional strategies to get it done
in Congress, says Folha de S. Paulo’s Celso Rocha de Barros. One major issue that could get caught in the crossfire is pension reform.
Brazil’s Congress gets installed today with the strongest
representation of the president’s Social Liberal Party (PSL) to date.
But with 6 out of 81 senators and 56 out of 513, the Worker’s Party (PT)
continues to have a stronger presence than the PSL’s 4 senators and 52 deputies. These numbers could change once representatives take office and are allowed to change their party affiliation.
Bolsonaro served in the legislature for years but, as president, he has no coalition that guarantees him a majority. Meanwhile, the PT has formed an opposition alliance with center and left-leaning parties such as the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) and the Sustainability Network (Rede).
Whether Bolsonaro can stitch up enough support among the 30 parties
in Congress and usher through key reforms will have much to do with the
leadership of the upper and lower houses, to be elected during today’s
session. The top candidates on the shortlist for each are old faces in
Congress. If elected, Renan Calheiros would start his fifth mandate as Senate leader, while Rodrigo Maia
of ex-President Temer’s Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) could take
the helm in the Chamber. Though both represent politics as usual rather
than Bolsonaro’s “new Brazil,” investors are counting on them to support
pension reform. Maia has been in favor of pension reform before, though
Calheiros remains a question mark.
Will the other legislators support the executive? Estadão’s Marcelo de Moraes says that they know the importance of pension reform for Bolsonaro’s government and could use it as a bargaining chip.
Passing pension reform requires a constitutional change and, therefore,
two votes have to take place in each house with three-fifths in all
cases. In a document debriefing the first 30 days of the administration,
the government says it expects a reform to pass in this year’s first
semester, though it has yet to detail the proposal it is sending to
Congress or whether the bill will include pension reform for the military—a point of friction in Bolsonaro’s military-heavy cabinet.
Besides convincing the traditional cohorts in Congress, the government also has to deal with the arrival of Bolsonaro’s son Flávio, who faces corruptions allegations, to the Senate. (See Day 17.)
The number of congressional newcomers is higher than usual, amounting to over half of all the Chamber of Deputies and 85 percent of the 54 seats
that were up for election in the Senate. When it comes to gender
parity, the Chamber of Deputies now has 77 women, or 51 percent more
than before, though that amounts to a mere 15 percent of the lower house seats. The Senate, similarly, is now 15 percent female.
On January 28, Bolsonaro went through a planned surgery to remove a
colostomy bag put into place after he was stabbed in September during
the presidential campaign. He is expected to step down for two days but
the plan is to retake the presidency at the hospital, where he’ll be in
recovery for 10 days.
Who’s in charge while the president goes under? Vice President Hamilton Mourão,
and it’s not the first time the former general serves as Brazil’s
interim president. Brazil’s Constitution determines the vice president
takes over in case the president is incapacitated, suspended, or abroad.
To that end, while Bolsonaro was in Davos, Mourão signed a decree
expanding which public servants can designate information as
“ultra-secret,” a measure that makes information classified for 25
years, and “secret,” which does the same for 15 years. The decree
changes Brazil’s 2011 transparency law and raises concerns among civil
society groups that say it will make it more difficult to hold the public sector accountable.
Bolsonaro admitted himself to the hospital after a January 26 visit
to see the extent of the damage caused by a collapsed dam in Brumadinho,
Minas Gerais that has left at least 58 dead. The presidency created a special council to oversee search and rescue and the reestablishment of basic services in the region. Bolsonaro also recorded a message from the hospital saying the government will help victims’ families.
Environmental experts raised concerns that
the Brumadinho dam collapse—as well as another dam that burst in
2015—were certified as “stable” by independent auditors. There are more
than 400 dams in the state of Minas Gerais. Meanwhile, Environment
Minister Ricardo Salles described Brazil’s environmental regulation
by saying it’s “complex and doesn’t work.” Bolsonaro promised to ease
environmental laws claiming they are “an industry of fines.” (See Day 7).
Search-and-rescue efforts got a boost on Monday when Israel sent 130 soldiers to Minas Gerais. The country is among the first to help Brazil with the disaster.
In his first official trip abroad as president, Bolsonaro spoke for only six minutes at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) flagship conference in Davos. Usually, keynote speakers have half an hour at the forum—surprising
observers and disappointing investors who were eager for details on
measures the new Brazilian administration has in the works, such as
fiscal reform.
#Brazil President Bolsonaro disappoints w/speech at #WEF19 the Davos crowd & fin mkts. Brazil Real drops 0.5% as he just touts reform "credibility" in a speech that has no substance & credibility. Investors had been looking for concrete measures on pensions, sale of state assets. pic.twitter.com/s6Y2kznU0J— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) January 22, 2019
This year, WEF’s focus is “Globalization 4.0: Shaping a New
Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution” and
organizers have emphasized the need for reforming institutions in a time of protectionism and nationalism,
recognizing for the first time that people’s discontent with democracy
and the status quo around the world can be a threat. In his short
speech, Bolsonaro tried to sell “a new Brazil” and promised to open the
country’s economy, mentioning privatizations and tax cuts
without explaining how he’ll work on these promises. The lack of
detailed information to the Davos audience was not the only missed
opportunity: Bolsonaro had lunch alone after arriving at the forum, which 70 heads of states are attending.
3,5 mil participantes e 70 chefes de estado e governo. Mas Bolsonaro almoçando sozinho em Davos. pic.twitter.com/yeYvUAOAOh— Jamil Chade (@JamilChade) January 22, 2019
While leaving investors wanting more, other attendants at WEF were
open about their discontent with Brazil’s new leader. Robert Shiller,
the Nobel laureate who predicted 2009’s global economic crisis, said Brazil deserved a better leader. Environmental experts also expressed concern with Bolsonaro’s plan to balance environmental protections with agribusiness, given the president’s remarks
that his government is working to reconcile Brazil’s biodiversity and
forest abundance with economic development. On January 18, Brazil’s
agriculture minister cleared 131 pesticides for sale,
in addition to 28 chemicals that were officially allowed in the country
as of January 10. Experts told El País Brasil that the movement to
increase the use of pesticides in the country has been growing
exponentially since the previous government.
Although the president also claimed he’s giving Justice Minister Sergio Moro
(who’s also in Davos) the tools to tackle corruption, the Bolsonaro
family, meanwhile, faced more complications with the law at home. On
January 19, Brazil’s Council for Financial Activities Control added more
information to the corruption investigation in connection with Flávio Bolsonaro, saying the senator-elect’s financial operations included an atypical payment of nearly $265,000, and has made other payments similar to the ones found in Fabricio Queiroz’s bank account (see Day 17). O Globo reported today that the president’s son employed the mother and wife of one of the police captains suspected of killing the activist and city councilmember, Marielle Franco, during Flávio’s term in Rio’s state assembly. Flávio denies wrongdoing and claims he’s a victim of a defamation campaign.
“Make your own conclusions,” said Bolsonaro in a tweet this Friday about Brazilian Development Bank’s (BNDES) 50 top clients, a list aggregated by the state development bank and published online January 18. The webpage shows BNDES’ biggest beneficiaries in the last 15 years and lists companies, states, and foreign countries.
Ainda vamos bem mais a fundo! BNDES divulga interessante link identificando os países que usaram os recursos financeiros do Brasil e os motivos dos empréstimos. Tire suas conclusões: https://t.co/kJKJXjenhI pic.twitter.com/HKaULyXHDG— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) January 18, 2019
During his campaign, Bolsonaro promised to “open the BNDES black
box.” In his first week on the job, he said many contracts were already
cancelled and vowed for more transparency from the institution, which is
overseen by the Finance and Planning ministries. Joaquim Levy, who heads the bank, also promised greater transparency when he was sworn in.
The data published on the webpage was previously available “but hard to find,” according to the lending institution. Folha de S. Paulo
shows the bank has been releasing details about its operations since
2015 when it faced pressure related to Lava Jato investigations into
large construction companies that grew exponentially and had received
BNDES funds. Folha’s Ricardo Balthazar points out how the new packaging of the data is a mere “recycling of information” rather than an improvement in transparency. Nonetheless, the bank released additional information about exports
of capital goods such as Embraer airplanes and operations in other
Latin American countries such as Argentina, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras,
México, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela.
The largest BNDES beneficiary is Petrobras: it took in over $16.6
billion between 2004 and 2018. The oil company at the epicenter of the
Lava Jato corruption scandal also has several subsidiaries on the BNDES
top-50 list, alongside other companies involved in corruption investigations.
This celebration of greater transparency comes a day after Bolsonaro
supporters started to question the family fight against corruption on
WhatsApp groups because of the request to suspend an investigation into
irregular cash flows involving the president's son, Flávio Bolsonaro. (see Day 17).
A Supreme Court judge suspended an investigation into irregular cash
flows through the driver and bodyguard of Bolsonaro’s son, Rio de
Janeiro Senator-elect Flávio Bolsonaro. Brazil’s Council for Financial Activities Control found that unusual payments worth $305,000 passed through the Fabricio Queiroz’s bank account between 2016 and 2017, news Folha de São Paulo
broke in December, after which Rio state prosecutors launched an
investigation. A portion of the payments made their way to now-first
lady Michelle Bolsonaro.
The president, his son, and the driver have all denied wrongdoing,
claiming the investigation was meant to tarnish the new administration.
While the injunction was sealed under conditions of secrecy by Supreme
Court Justice Luiz Fux, Brazilian media is reporting that Flavio made the request to stop the investigation.
Rio's State Prosecution Office informed that the Supreme Court has suspended an investigation into suspect financial transactions involving the staff of Senator-elect Flavio Bolsonaro. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/OrbCi5AZk0— The Brazilian Report (@BrazilianReport) January 17, 2019
A pillar of Bolsonaro’s campaign, corruption was a top concern for
voters ahead of the election, with investigations plaguing half of the
outgoing Brazilian Congress. (The new Congress will be installed
February 1.) Even before taking office, the president moved quickly to
appoint Judge Sergio Moro, who has spearheaded the Lava Jato cases, to head the Justice Ministry. In a 2019 poll by Ideia Big Data, 78 percent of Brazilians said they believe corruption will go down under the new administration.
Bolsonaro delivered on a campaign promise Tuesday when he signed a decree easing restrictions on gun possession
in Brazil. Citing a 2005 referendum in which Brazilians rejected
forbidding gun sales, the president said that he was taking the step to
“guarantee people’s rights to self-defense.”
The decree modifies Brazil’s Disarmament Statute, passed in 2003. The law established rules for gun purchases,
with 25 as the minimum age to have a license. It prohibited civilians
from carrying guns, requiring authorized gun owners—such as members of
law enforcement—to prove why they need them outside their homes. The
legislation also established a national gun registry with periodic
license renewal. One year after the statute, the murder rate in Brazil dropped by 8 percent and studies show the average growth of violent deaths in the country fell considerably.
Now, the decree modifies the statute to allow civilians who live in
rural areas and violent cities to own a gun and keep it in their homes
or business they own. It increases the period for a gun license from 5 to 10 years and forgives expired licenses.
Citizens still face restrictions and psychological tests, but there is no longer a requirement to prove the need for a gun. People living in cities with murder rates higher than 10 per 100,000 people are now allowed to buy up to four firearms. All states in Brazil surpass that murder rate.
A group of Brazilian legislators called the “bullet caucus” joined Bolsonaro when he signed the decree. Congress already took steps to ease gun ownership
in recent years, but, during his campaign, Bolsonaro framed loosened
gun control as a measure to combat crime, a top concern in the country.
The country’s homicide rate rose 3 percent from 2016 to 2017, when there
were an average 175 homicides per day. According to a Global Burden of Disease ranking, Brazil is the world leader in deaths by firearm.
When signing the decree, Bolsonaro said more changes could be proposed by legislators. A poll by Datafolha showed on January 14
that 89 percent of Bolsonaro supporters are also in favor of reducing
Brazil’s criminal responsibility age from 18 down to 16 years old.
“[Bolsonaro] is a great new leader,” U.S. President Donald Trump said at an event
of the American Farm Bureau Federation on Monday, music to the ears of
the new Brazilian administration. Just days before, Brazil’s Foreign
Ministry outlined six foreign policy objectives for the administration’s
first three months, and at the top of the list was Bolsonaro’s visit to
Washington. Foreign Minister Araújo wants to launch a
Brazil-U.S. partnership agreement, which will cover issues from commerce
to defense and technology. Though the two countries have signed a
number of bilateral cooperation agreements over the years, keeping up ties has generally faded from both country’s foreign policy goals. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo voiced a commitment to revitalizing those ties when he visited Bolsonaro for the inauguration.
Some U.S. legislators have already raised a red flag, criticizing Pompeo for boosting ties with Bolsonaro, who has a record of far-right rhetoric and recent measures diminishing human rights. (Learn about Bolsonaro’s decrees in Day 2.)
Bolsonaro, often called the “Trump of the Tropics” is likely to get along with his U.S. counterpart,
and Foreign Minister Araújo is certainly counting on it. Araújo has
praised Trump’s nationalist and anti-globalist views and voiced plans to
follow in Washington’s footsteps by moving Brazil’s Tel Aviv embassy to Jerusalem.
To what extent Brazil pursues a similar anti-globalist foreign policy
is unclear, given the diverging voices in the administration, political
scientist Mauricio Santoro points out.
Araújo’s views may end up clashing with the open-economy agenda of
Bolsonaro’s economic team, he notes. Then again, there may not be a
conflict after all. “Brazil will show that you can increase your share
in international trade and investment flows even as you confidently step
onto the world stage to defend freedom, speaking with your nation’s own
voice,” wrote Araújo in a Bloomberg op-ed.
The ministry is also making it easier for U.S. tourists to visit the
country, departing from Brazil’s visa reciprocity policy requiring U.S.
and Canadian citizens to obtain visas to enter the country—a move tested
during the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Another item on the foreign ministry’s objectives list: Reviewing Mercosur,
a South American trading bloc consisting of Argentina, Brazil,
Paraguay, and Uruguay, and formerly Venezuela as well until it was
suspended in 2016. Bolsonaro, averse to multilateral deals, has shown
interest in reforming Mercosur rules to allow individual member
countries to sign bilateral trade deals. If such a reform comes to
fruition, The Cohen Group’s Fernando Cutz advises Brazil to pursue a free-trade deal with the United States and take advantage of a proven track record of successful U.S. FTAs in Latin America.
On Wednesday, Bolsonaro pulled out of a UN Migration accord Temer
had signed in December after two years of diplomatic negotiations. “Not
just anyone is allowed to enter into our house, just like not just
anyone will enter Brazil thanks to a pact adopted by third parties,”
said the president.
His decision is symbolic and unlikely to have legal ramifications;
the accord, with 160 country signatories, seeks a global and humane
approach to addressing waves of migration worldwide but is not legally
binding. Political Scientist Mauricio Santoro notes that, while
Bolsonaro’s decision is insignificant to his base,
it falls in line with his position against signing multilateral deals
and aligns the president with other conservative leaders around the
world who have won power on similar platforms.
But while the portion of Bolsonaro’s electorate fed up with Brazil’s
open arms approach to immigration may be small, it did give him traction
in parts of the Northeast, which has typically backed left-leaning
presidents. In the presidential runoff, Bolsonaro won both of the states bordering Venezuela, where as many as 900 refugees were crossing the border daily last summer.
Bolsonaro has also taken a hardline stance against Venezuela’s Nicolás
Maduro, who will begin a second term as president January 10 that at
least 12 Latin American countries, including Brazil, won’t recognize. A clash between the two leaders is a “conflict foretold,” argues former Mexican Foreign Secretary Jorge Castañeda,
who believes military action by the Brazilian and Colombian
conservative governments, backed by the United States, “is increasingly
conceivable.”
Meanwhile in the Northeast, the president has tried to quell more
than a week of violent gang attacks and explosions that prompted Justice
Minister Sergio Moro to dispatch some 500 federal security forces
to the state of Ceará after Bolsonaro’s inauguration. The attacks are
said to be organized in response to the new president’s proposal to combat gang activities in prisons.
See Day 4 for more on the president’s security proposals.
Brazil’s head of the of environmental protection agency Ibama resigned after Bolsonaro and Environment Minister Ricardo Salles questioned a budget item. Suely Araujo,
appointed by President Temer in 2016 to head the Environment Ministry’s
enforcement arm, stepped down after Salles criticized the agency for
signing a car rental contract worth $7.7 million. Araujo says that total
was negotiated down and covers a wide range of services, including the
costs and fuel for nearly 400 trucks used for surveillance, forest
firefighting, and environmental emergencies.
To take Araujo’s place, Salles has picked Eduardo Fortunato Bim, a lawyer who worked five years in the Attorney General’s Office. Bim favors reducing bureaucracy when it comes to environmental licenses, a position in line with Bolsonaro’s campaign pledges to cut the fines Ibama imposes on landowners and businesses that break the law in the Amazon—fines the president deems “ideological.”
Scaling back legal enforcement in the Amazon is welcome news to Brazil’s ruralistas
who seek to expand their crops in the world’s largest rainforest and
thereby boost exports. This agribusiness lobby already has tight links
to the Environmental Ministry, with the President of the Rural
Democratic Union, Luiz Antônio Nabhan Garcia, hailing Salles’ role in the administration as “the end of the police state…over who works and produces in the country.”
In his appointment of Salles, Bolsonaro sidestepped a court ruling
banning the former São Paulo state’s environment secretary from the
political arena for three years. During his time working for the state
government from 2016 to 2017, Salles allegedly altered maps
to clear the way for factories and mining operations along the
protected areas around the Tietê, São Paulo’s most important river.
In an early morning tweet, Bolsonaro urged all three government branches to commit to giving security forces the guarantees they need in their work to reduce crime. Bolsonaro wants to facilitate the crimefighting in a country with soaring homicide rates. He is also working on making it easier for people to acquire weapons with an executive order he pledged by the end of the month.
Currently, 8 of every 100 civilians possesses fireams,
though weapons are widespread on the black market. Brazil’s 15-year-old
gun law gives the federal police the ability to veto any permit.
Bolsonaro has proposed removing this veto power, lowering the age
requirement from 25 to 21, allowing for weapons to be carried in public,
and making permits permanent.
But most Brazilians may not be on board with such changes. While the
portion who think possessing guns should be a legal right rose 11 points
over the past five years, an October 2018 Datafolha poll found
that just 41 percent support that right. The same pollster registered
an uptickin the portion of Brazilians who think that possessing arms
should be illegal, from 55 percent in October to 61 percent in December.
The cabinet hosted its first meeting at the Planalto Palace and began
purging the government of contractors—mostly part-time employees—who do
not share the new administration’s ideology. Chief of Staff Onyx Lorenzoni said he has already fired 300 contractors
in his ministry in an effort to “clean house” and that other ministries
will likely follow suit. He also reported that the administration’s
privatization plans were “still under consideration,” alluding to an
early morning tweet by the president that noted the potential $1.85 billion in investments Brazil could attract with the privatization of airports and ports.
Bolsonaro gave his first interview as president to SBT TV, declaring
his intention to build on the current pension reform proposed by the
previous administration. But the new president has some of his own
changes to submit, such as cutting the minimum retirement age
from 65 to 62 years old for men and from 60 to 57 for women by 2022,
after which “it will be up to the next president to reassess the
situation.” Lowering the retirement age, however, is contrary to what
economists and financial analysts like J.P. Morgan’s Emy Shayo
would advise Brazil to do to manage its bloated fiscal deficit. The
current pension system consumes 50 percent of the country’s public
spending.
Bolsonaro arrived at the Planalto Palace with a number of
presidential decrees, which could expire after 120 days unless the
Congress approves them. Among them was a 4.6 percent hike to the minimum
wage, which fell below what was accounted for in the federal budget
passed by the Temer government. A second decree ordered the office of
the Government Secretary to coordinate and monitor international NGOs
in Brazil. Human Rights Watch’s Jose Miguel Vivanco noted the measure
could be used to either increase collaboration or restrain the
independent nature of these entities.
Another executive order allows the Agriculture Ministry, headed by Tereza Cristina, to delineate indigenous territory.
Previously a responsibility of the national indigenous agency FUNAI,
the change limits concessions made to native Brazilians and
slave-descendants known as quilombolas while boosting
agribusiness. In a tweet, Bolsonaro said 15 percent of the national
territory is currently categorized this way despite having less than 1
million people, and that “together we will integrate these citizens.”
Mais de 15% do território nacional é demarcado como terra indígena e quilombolas. Menos de um milhão de pessoas vivem nestes lugares isolados do Brasil de verdade, exploradas e manipuladas por ONGs. Vamos juntos integrar estes cidadãos e valorizar a todos os brasileiros.— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) January 2, 2019
Bolsonaro also removed LGBT concerns from the purview of the Human Rights Ministry, which is now headed by evangelical pastor Damares Alves.
No specific agency is now responsible for handling LGBT issues and
policies, though Alves clarified that the Secretariat of Global
Protection under her ministry will have a board that will address all discrimination issues. The community fears it will now have less protections
from the government, especially in light of Bolsonaro’s homophobic
comments throughout the campaign and Alves’ own view that “diversity
politics threatens the Brazilian family.” She and Cristina are the only two women in the 22-member cabinet, which also includes seven former military men.
During his swearing in, Economy Minister Paulo Guedes reaffirmed his promise to cut taxes, public spending, and reform the pension system. Markets responded positively, strengthening the real 2.4 percent and the Bovespa stock index by 3.6 percent.
On Wednesday, Bolsonaro also met with Mike Pompeo, each stating their commitment to a new era of stronger U.S.-Brazil ties.
Brazil kicked off 2019 with the inauguration of a new president.
Bolsonaro’s speech struck a nationalistic tone, with calls for “Brazil
above everything, and God above everyone,” as well as that the country
would start to “free itself of socialism” and “political correctness.”
The inauguration counted the lowest number of international delegations in 30 years, with just 46 foreign delegations traveling to Brasilia and 10 heads of state among them. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban were among the foreign leaders present. Donald Trump sent Secretary Mike Pompeo in his stead, though the U.S. president tweeted a congratulatory message.
When it comes to Latin American heads of state, five attended: Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Chile’s Sebastián Piñera, Honduras’ Juan Orlando Hernández, Paraguay’s Mario Abdo Benítez, and Uruguay’s Tabaré Vázquez. Peru’s Martín Vizcarra canceled last minute and Colombia sent Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez. Bolsonaro disinvited the Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan presidents, while Argentina’s Mauricio Macri was vacationing and notably absent, though he’s scheduled to meet with Bolsonaro on January 16.
==//==
POLITICS
#BRAZILIAN SUPREME COURT - STF IS A "SHAME"
#Today Operation Car Wash reaches 5 years of age.
Following a judgement by Brazilian
Supreme Federal Court (STF)n that ordered
all Operation Car Wash investigations of
ruling on electoral justice, protests call
STF is a "shame"
STF of ruling last week that ordered
all Operation Car Wash investigations and other operations that mentioned money for election campaigns to be sent to electoral courts instead of the ordinary courts.
Protest march against STF extended in Copacabana this Sunday Photo: JOSE LUCENA / FUTURA PRESS / FUTURA PRESS / ESTADÃO CONTENT
From UOL in Brasilia
03/17/2019 11h36Updated on 3/17/2019 12:45 PM
1.
A protest banner calling the STF (Federal Supreme Court) "shame" is one of the examples of a protest that is taking place across the country this morning (17). The protests are against the STF of ruling last week that ordered all Operation Car Wash investigations and other operations that mentioned money for election campaigns to be sent to electoral courts instead of the ordinary courts.
Today Operation Car Wash reaches 5 years of age. five years of deflagration. The operation denounced 426 people in five years, as UOL showed. He closed 183 award-winning collaborations with investigators. But he saw some of them giving trouble and lack of condemnation.
2.
3.
4.
With flags of Brazil, protesters protest against the STF in CopacabanaImage: JOSE LUCENA / FUTURA PRESS / ESTADÃO CONTENT
The MBL announced that there would be protests today in more than 40 cities. In Brasilia, a band says: "STF, who had Lava Jato killed?". The images were shared in the profile of Federal Deputy Carla Zambelli (PSL-SP).
5. Carla Zambelli @ CarlaZambelli17
Manifestation NOW against the STF, in Brasília-DF.
#BrasilNasRuas
6,145
11:37 AM - Mar 17, 2019
2,314 people are talking about this
6.
Also in the Federal District, protesters gathered outside the Federal Supreme Court building in Brasilia to protest. The demonstration began around 10am with about 50 people singing the National Anthem. The estimate of the Military Police of the Federal District was that, despite the rain, about 100 people, until 11 am, participated in the act.
The representative of the movement Comes to Rua in Brasília, Celina Gonçalves, said she considered the decision of the STF inadequate. She said she feared that the handling of this type of crime in the Electoral Court would be blocked and that the acts would prescribe.
In Recife, the man held a sign with the name of "traitors of the fatherland". Below were the names of the ministers Gilmar Mendes, Celso de Mello, Marco Aurélio, Alexandre de Moraes, Dias Tofolli and Ricardo Lewandowski. It was they who gave the six votes at Thursday's trial.
The protest was supported in social networks by the actress Regina Duarte. In her account on Instagram, the actress invites to the demonstration and says Operation Car Wash "is in danger in the hands of the Supreme Court."
Yesterday, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia (DEM-RJ), invited President Jair Bolsonaro and STF President Dias Toffoli to have lunch at his home in Brasilia. On the way out, he defended the court's decision as correct, "even if some do not like it." Maia said the theme was not discussed at lunch.
Hours earlier, Jair Bolsonaro himself shared a video of one of his sons, Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL-SP, criticizing the decision of the Supreme Court.
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==//==
SOURCE/LINK: https://noticias.uol.com.br/politica/ultimas-noticias/2019/03/17/protesto-mbl-vergonha-operacao-lava-jato.htm?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=uol&utm_content=geral
POLÍTICA
Após decisão sobre justiça eleitoral, protestos chamam STF de "vergonha"
Faixa de protesto contra o STF é estendida em Copacabana neste domingoImagem: JOSE LUCENA/FUTURA PRESS/FUTURA PRESS/ESTADÃO CONTEÚDO
Do UOL, em Brasília
17/03/2019 11h36Atualizada em 17/03/2019 12h45
Uma faixa chamando o STF (Supremo Tribunal Federal) de "vergonha" é um dos exemplos de um protestos que acontecem pelo país na manhã deste domingo (17). Os protestos são contra decisão do tribunal, na semana passada, que ordenou que todas as investigações da Lava Jato e outras operações que mencionassem dinheiro para campanhas eleitorais fossem enviadas a tribunais eleitorais em vez da justiça comum.
Hoje a Lava Jato completa cinco anos de deflagração. A operação denunciou 426 pessoas em cinco anos, como mostrou o UOL. Fechou 183 colaborações premiadas com investigados. Mas viu algumas delas darem problemas e falta de condenações.
Com bandeiras do Brasil, manifestantes protestam contra o STF em CopacabanaImagem: JOSE LUCENA/FUTURA PRESS/ESTADÃO CONTEÚDO
O MBL anunciou que haveria protestos hoje em mais de 40 cidades. Em Brasília, uma faixa diz: "STF, quem mandou matar a Lava Jato?". As imagens foram compartilhadas no perfil da deputada federal Carla Zambelli (PSL-SP).
Carla Zambelli@CarlaZambelli17
Manifestação AGORA contra o STF, em Brasília-DF.
#BrasilNasRuas
6,145
11:37 AM - Mar 17, 2019
2,314 people are talking about this
Ainda no DF, manifestantes se reuniram em frente ao prédio do STF (Supremo Tribunal Federal), em Brasília, para protestar. A manifestação começou por volta das 10h da manhã com cerca de 50 pessoas, que entoavam o Hino Nacional. A estimativa da Polícia Militar do Distrito Federal era de que, apesar da chuva, cerca de 100 pessoas, até as 11h, participavam do ato.
A representante do movimento Vem pra Rua em Brasília, Celina Gonçalves, disse considerar a decisão do STF inadequada. Ela disse temer que a tramitação desse tipo de crime na Justiça Eleitoral fique travada e que os atos prescrevam.
Em Recife, homem segurava um cartaz com o nome dos "traidores da pátria". Abaixo, estavam os nomes dos ministros Gilmar Mendes, Celso de Mello, Marco Aurélio, Alexandre de Moraes, Dias Tofolli e Ricardo Lewandowski. Foram eles que deram os seis votos no julgamento de quinta-feira.
O protesto foi apoiado nas redes sociais pela atriz Regina Duarte. Em sua conta no Instagram, a atriz convida para a manifestação e diz que a Operação Lava Jato "está correndo perigo nas mãos do STF (Supremo Tribunal Federal )".
Ontem, o presidente da Câmara dos Deputados, Rodrigo Maia (DEM-RJ), convidou o presidente Jair Bolsonaro e o presidente do STF, Dias Toffoli, para almoçar em sua casa, em Brasília. À saída, ele defendeu a decisão do tribunal como correta, "mesmo que alguns não gostem". Maia disse que o tema não foi tratado no almoço.
Horas antes, o próprio Jair Bolsonaro compartilhou vídeo de um dos seus filhos, Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL-SP, criticando a decisãodo Supremo. (*Com informações da Agência Brasil)
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'Freiras' ganham milhões com produtos de maconha e exportam até ao Brasil
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josepsn893292137
2 horas atrás
Brasileiros , uni-vos . Parabéns à Regina Duarte . Não se vergou ante o poderio da " Globolixo e de seus colegas " vermelhos " .
61 Responder Respostas (13)
RoyalReal
2 horas atrás
Brasileiros patriotas, vamos protestar até o fim dessa casa da luz vermelha chamada: STF e congresso nacional.
55 Responder Respostas (5)
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NOTÍCIAS
Operação completa cinco anos
Delações da Lava Jato esbarraram em "manipulação", perícia e falta de prova
Advogados de Youssef defendem delações, mas vêm excessosPozzobon: STF deu mensagem de esperança a criminosos de colarinho branco
Encontro com Trump nesta semana
Com retórica pró-EUA, Bolsonaro tentará abrir nova era de alinhamento
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