#Sérgio Moro, a Courageous Judge / Sérgio Moro, Juiz de coragem./ The transformation of Juan Guaido, Venezuela's self-declared president (From CNN)
Sérgio Moro, a Courageous Judge
SOURCE/LINK: https://www.voanews.com/a/brazil-supreme-court-ruling-a-blow-to-corruption-probe/4830158.html
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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.
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.
‘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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SOURCE/LINK: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/07/americas/juan-guaido-profile-venezuela-kiley-intl/index.html
Caracas, Venezuela (CNN)Juan
Guaido spent his entire adult life living under the promises of a
socialist utopia, first under Hugo Chavez, then Nicolas Maduro. Now as he battles for Venezuela's presidency, the 35-year-old has adopted the early campaign slogan and stylings of a US president.
"Can we do it?" He roared to a vast crowd in the capital, Caracas last Saturday.
"Yes
we can!" They shouted back, their right hands held high as they joined
him in pledging a swift and peaceful transition to democratic
presidential elections.
Intentionally
or not, there's a lot of Barack Obama about Guaido, a former industrial
engineer, current head of Venezuela's National Assembly and
self-declared president of the nation.
Guaido has adopted the former US president's white open-neck shirt and suit combo, and shares his broad smile.
He's
good with a crowd, ploughing his way to the podium at a recent rally
through adoring fans and hopping over barriers with a youthful ease that
might rekindle memories of his days as a student activist in Caracas'
Catholic University.
And
perhaps most important, he's managed to bend the rage that many
Venezuelans feel at their collapsed economy, crumbling social service,
food shortages and astronomical inflation into something more powerful
-- hope.
"It's something that
we've always told him. When Obama became president, we told him 'You
walk like Obama," Guaido's mother Norka told CNN. "Obama roll up his
sleeves, and [Guaido] also does that, but it's not like he's mimicking
Obama," she added.
"Juan has
emerged and he is surprised by it because he did not imagine he'd be
president even for an interim period," said Roberto Patino, a senior
aide to Guaido who will soon be running Guaido's humanitarian relief
effort.
"But we've seen what this
government has done and we're all trying to do something about it," he
added. "For the first time in many years, there is a kind of hope that
we'll get new presidential elections."
Juan Guaido's political awakening
Asked
what was most irritating about Guaido, his wife Fabiana admitted he
could be a little bottled-up. "I think his strength, the strength that
he also transmits, sometimes does not allow anything to break him, and
maybe blocks many feelings," she said. "And I believe this path has
taken him to that, to take his feelings and grab them and keep them
here, not let to them out, not to express them."
But
Guaido is "completely different' with their 21-month-old daughter, she
said. "With her, he expresses himself maybe different from what we see
when he is on the streets. We see a man with great strength, and with
his daughter you see such a great love."
Norka
describes the young Guaido, one of four boys, as gregarious,
beach-loving and athletic. He frequently showed signs of leadership and
an aptitude for mediation, she says. Though her family was not involved
in politics, she says there has never been a particular party
affiliation.
Guaido's
political awakening came, perhaps, as a result of his first
confrontation with the failings of the state: His home town, La Guaira,
was all but wiped off the map by the 1999 Vargas landslide.
Guaido's
home was destroyed, and several of his friends died in the disaster.
"We lost everything, but thank God we survived. We were given a second
chance at life," Norka said. "It scarred him deeply."
Guaido
was frustrated at what he perceived to be the government's failure,
under Hugo Chavez, to adequately respond to the catastrophe. He believed
the government ignored the plight of too many, failed to rehouse
people, and was too slow to deal with the disaster. An estimated 19,000
people were killed by the landslide, according to the US Geological Survey.
His
political ambitions crystallized after university, when he joined a
failed campaign to prevent Chavez's closure of Radio Caracas Television
in 2007. He went on to join Leopoldo Lopez in founding the nationwide
political party Voluntad Popular (Popular Will) in 2009. He joined the
National Assembly in 2011, and assumed its chief leadership role in
early January.
Stand off on a global stage
Guaido
has a flair for theatrical politics. In 2015, he went on hunger strike
for two weeks as part of a campaign to force the government to hold
parliamentary elections.
Now he is
organizing humanitarian aid to be shipped to three crossings into
Venezuela from Colombia, Brazil, and Caribbean islands, while incumbent
president Maduro insists that the country does not need aid. In doing
so, Guaido is challenging the military to either maintain a national
blockade out of loyalty to Maduro, or let much-needed food and supplies
finally enter the impoverished country.
Maduro,
who briefly detained Guaido in early January and recently hinted at
doing so again, has a few dramatic tricks of his own. Last week, Guaido
publicly accused the Venezuelan special forces, who are loyal to Maduro,
of surrounding his family's home in an alleged intimidation attempt.
"As
humans, we have moments of weakness or when one thinks that something
bad is about to happen," Fabiana, his wife, said. "Last week [when
special forces surrounded their home] I did not feel fear, but rather
frustration because of what could have happened to my daughter."
Venezuela's
constitution empowers the National Assembly leader to assume the
presidency if there is "a vacuum of power." Guaido, who argues that
Maduro's election to the presidency last year was illegitimate, claims
that such a vacuum exists and that he has a constitutional mandate to
fill it.
The United States, much
of the European Union, and most countries in South America have
recognized Guaido as the legitimate interim president, and called for
new elections in Venezuela. But Guaido has so far failed to secure the
support of the armed forces, at least in public.
Meanwhile
Maduro, who enjoys the backing of the Supreme Court, has rejected
demands for new presidential elections, offering "dialogue" instead. So
far, that suggestion has been brushed off by Guaido's camp.
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of La Guaira.
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