Tags
2016 Coup in Brazil, Corruption in Brazil, Ex-President Luiz Inacio 'Lula' da Silva, Impeachment of Brazil President Dilma Rousseff 2016, Michel Temer
New Brazil President Michel Temer – August 31, 2016
Photo Credit: Pensa Brasil
On August 31, 2016, following her four-month battle against members of congress calling for her impeachment, Brazil’s first female president Dilma Rousseff lost by 61 to 20 Senate votes. The corrupt political class and their Big Business collaborators won the day. Michel Temer – Rousseff’s former Vice President and ally from the right-wing Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) – now governs Brazil until her mandate ends in 2018.
After thirteen years of economic boom then bust, the government of Brazil’s center-left socialist democratic Workers Party (PT) became the victim of a parliamentary coup d’état. The former president and popular PT leader Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva now faces charges of masterminding the Petrobras graft scandal intended to make him ineligible to run for the presidency at the next election.
Brazil’s Workers Party is by no means exempt from corrupt practices. Brazil runs on corruption. It’s a plague that infects not only the government but also all of Brazilian society. If you do business with Brazil, you may or may not be aware of the corruptive hoops that your Brazilian partners or representatives jump through daily to stay in business and meet your requirements.
Since its foundation in 1980 as a large left-wing socialist movement, arising from opposition to the military dictatorship following the 1964 coup d’état, the Workers Party moved towards a form of democratic socialism that served the capitalist economic class while implementing social programs to lift the working poor out of poverty.
When my family and I migrated to Brazil in 1987, I experienced first-hand the struggles of Brazil’s majority low-wage workers. At the time, while I still struggled to learn Portuguese, I became a strong supporter of the PT presidential candidate, Lula da Silva in the 1989 General Elections. Lula’s rise from poverty and his tireless fight for workers’ rights inspired and gave hope to the people…me inclusive.
After three failed attempts for the presidency (1989, 1994 & 1998), Lula won the 2002 General Elections in the second round with 61.3 percent (52.7 million votes), becoming at the time the second most voted-for-president in the world, after Ronald Reagan (1984).
I recall well that election and our elation after years of struggle. Brazilians, especially those of the educated middle class, deemed a person without a college degree unworthy to hold the nation’s top post. A common criticism for not voting for Lula: How would a person of his humble origins be able to negotiate with foreign leaders? In addition to shedding his Che Guevara appearance, Lula had to appease investors, fearing the “Lula Risk,” that he would stay the economic course set out by his predecessor, if elected.
The impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff has knocked me sideways. The pain from the fall runs deep. Under the new right-wing government’s neoliberal economic strategies for recovery, all the gains for Brazil’s low-paid workers and their families are now at risk. But that’s another story.
Three Worlds One Vision 
So sad, but I hope this wakes the working people up, not only in Brazil but around the world. Brazil was ripe for plunder by the foreign investors. As in so many other “emerging economies,” foreign investors buy the governments along with the natural resources, then dole out crumbs to natives to keep them complicit.
I know little about Dilma Rousseff except occasional newspaper articles and your blog. I suspect her greatest crime was naivete. As soon as she learned too much, she became a target for those heavily invested in the status quo.
No one but me is calling for investigation into personal assets, like stock holdings, of elected decision makers and government bureaucrats. As long as taxpayers are paying their salaries, taxpayers deserve to know where that money is going.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Katharine, working people in Brazil, the US, and worldwide are suffering because our elected representatives stand with Big Business interests. In my next blog post on Brazil, I’ll share what’s up for sale under Temer’s government. For those who have money to invest, it’s a buyers’ market.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Rosaliene, a buyer’s market is the problem, not the solution. As soon as a government goes into debt, it’s at the mercy of the investors, and foreign investors have no loyalty to the country or its people.
The big threat/promise is that the foreigners will bring “jobs,” but those jobs are generally menial labor jobs that pollute the homeland while paying slave wages.
I’m wondering if our Constitution should be amended to deny the federal government the right to go into debt, especially debt that exceeds the length of congressional terms. A government that can’t live within its means is in no way fiscally responsible, and has no right to promise unborn taxpayers’ future earnings without their consent.
Can you tell me where Dilma Rousseff’s support came from when she was impeached? Did the working people stand up for her, or did they allow her to take the heat alone? My guess is they were too cowardly to take a vociferous stand on her behalf, or things might have turned out differently.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Can you tell me where Dilma Rousseff’s support came from when she was impeached? Did the working people stand up for her, or did they allow her to take the heat alone? My guess is they were too cowardly to take a vociferous stand on her behalf, or things might have turned out differently.”
~ Katherine, Dilma’s supporters came out into the streets in the thousands across Brazil. They came out again on August 31st when she was impeached. Here are some links to videos that you may find of interest:
“Democracy Is Dead in Brazil” by Maria Luisa Mendonça, teleSUR, 31 August 2016
With one-minute video of Brazilian police crackdown on protestors against impeachment
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Democracy-Is-Dead-in-Brazil-20160831-0007.html
Glenn Greenwald on Democracy Now Discussing Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff
The Intercept Brasil, Published on Aug 29, 2016
Glenn Greenwald speaks to Amy Goodman (DemocracyNow) about the impeachment of the Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff.
Brazil: Thousands Continue to Protests against Impeachment, teleSUR English
Published on May 13, 2016
Social movements, worker unions and activists continue to protest against the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mea culpa. This was certainly under-reported in the US press, at least what I saw of it. Yes? Admittedly my attention was spotty.
If that’s true, then this is certainly not the end of Dilma Rousseff. I’m looking forward to your next blog.
LikeLike
“This was certainly under-reported in the US press…”
~ Katharine, the Mainstream Media is complicit in promoting the narratives of the One Percent. Imagine what we don’t know about events taking place in America’s war zones!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Agreed. I wonder if the impeachment was timed with the Olympics on purpose.
By the way, I was curious about just who the one percent is, so googled it. An article by Thomas Sowell claims it consists of those who worked and saved and accumulated their wealth gradually. The elderly, in other words. I believe those are the people most heavily invested on Wall Street, which maybe why the government is so afraid to tamper with Social Security and Medicare. Those people would then have to start withdrawing from Wall Street to make ends meet.
Of course Sowell offers only one opinion, but I want names of those mysterious people who call the shots.
LikeLike
Perhaps, as such “gains” are lost, and lost again (as Leonard Cohen would put it) individuals of every age, gender, race, nation, will begin to grasp this essential truth: that change can only come from one’s self. From self-empowerment, and from detachment from all systems, religious, political, or economic. Only the self empowered individual remains immune and free from the grasp of corporate control. Perhaps not physically, not yet, but mentally, where it matters. The free thinking individual who works endlessly at changing her/himself cannot be enslaved. As long as people choose the corporate, the collective, way to power is how long they will continue to lose, and die. Oscar Wilde observed: “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions; their lives a mimicry; their passions a quotation.” Harsh but I think quite realistic. We seek idols to identify with and lead us, and that makes us idolaters. This pattern of leader-seeking which the elites know only too well how to manipulate, has to end and even now may be too late. We don’t NEED leaders, the media, corporate employers, preachers, militaries and bureaucracies; we just think we do because our thoughts come from them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Only the self empowered individual remains immune and free from the grasp of corporate control. Perhaps not physically, not yet, but mentally, where it matters. The free thinking individual who works endlessly at changing her/himself cannot be enslaved.”
~ I agree, Sha’Tara, but making this work in reality is another story. The corporate grasp reaches far and wide, invading the commons. Self empowered, free thinking indigenous peoples who live in the Amazon forest face daily threats from the ever expanding corporate grab.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, and as long as consumers continue to buy the lie, these indigenous peoples will lose their homes and die. These people have always been the victims and the martyrs of civilization. The drain on corporate power can only come from consumers refusing to “consume” beyond basic needs, and finding those needs among those “roadside stands” as it were, not in box stores. It comes down to awareness and willingness to change, but this time the change has to be total. If it is evil in nature, then it is evil and no “just a little bit” or “the lesser of” can be allowed. All or nothing. What I’m talking about is a revolution of the mind, not in the physical order. A “change of mind” for every individual. Possible? Absolutely. Likely? Never. Man only responds to forces he can no longer control or move in his favour, i.e. a complete collapse of his System which he can no longer patch, prevent, or pretend isn’t happening. Problem: man is NOT an empathetic creature, hence does not comprehend the universal application (and the power) of compassion, only brute force, for or against. At 70 I am “re-creating” myself into a compassionate being. I have been working at this all of my adult life. And although I now can experience the ineffable joy of this kind of life I cannot forget the price I paid for it in man’s world, and continue to pay. Compassion cannot become “popular” on man’s world because it demands self-sacrifice on a global scale and rejects any feel good philosophy. It’s not an Earthian thing for that reason and also because it is not a collective force and works only with total detachment (and that is not a contradiction!).
LikeLiked by 1 person
“It comes down to awareness and willingness to change, but this time the change has to be total.”
~ Sha’Tara, that’s humankind’s dilemma in a nutshell. We resist change, especially when we’re comfortable with the ways things are. Perhaps this was the folly of former civilizations. We procrastinate to make transitional changes to the point of total collapse. How little we have evolved from our days of living in caves!
LikeLike
Well, “when we lived in caves” we didn’t have to deal with anthropocentric disasters, only natural cataclysms. And having so much more room to roam, we could leave a devastated area and go on living somewhere else. No borders, no fences, no guards, no prisons, no passports, no deeds, no titles, oh, and get this: no hell, no heaven – just this terribly boring and devastating condition called freedom. Thank God we got smart and civilized ourselves before we became aware of happiness. Close call that. If nothing else, civilization guarantees that we can, with very little effort on our part, remain utterly miserable our entire life. If we can’t do it on our own the System is there to lend a giant helping hand.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Guyanese Online.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for sharing my post, Cyril. All the best 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Keep speaking out. The world knows nothing of all this, and the Internet can spread your message.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, John.
LikeLike
I think Rousseff’s government made a serious strategic mistake in spending billions of dollars on the World Cup and the Olympics instead of investing the money in economic reform. Such extravaganzas nearly always benefit the wealthy elite at the expense of the poor and they seem to have bankrupted the Brazilian economy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have to agree with that comment, as I despise the Olympics (or Olymfix as I call them) but as events unfolded, how much of that was Rouseff’s doing? She wasn’t in control, obviously, so the same people who deposed her likely made the Olymfix deal. If she had opposed it, would the lamestream media let the world know about it? Maybe we’ll find out in her memoirs, if she writes them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dr. Bramhall, the decision to host the World Cup and the Olympics was made when Brazil was experiencing an economic boom. There was so much money flowing from the exports of oil, iron ore, and soybeans that the corrupt politicians had a heyday in kickbacks. They also took their cuts from the massive infrastructure projects required for the World Cup and Olympics.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My condolences, Rosaliene.
LikeLike
Slowly recovering, Dr. Stein.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on mark jacobs lives!.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the re-blog, Mark. Much appreciated!
LikeLike
Rosaliene, do you have a post (or posts) telling about your decision to move to Brazil or your first days there?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello Bruce, thanks for dropping by. You can learn more about our decision to leave Guyana in my post “On Leaving Guyana.”
Since my then-husband and I, together with our two sons (2 and 4 years old), arrived in Brazil with three-month visitor’s visas, we earned our living by giving private English lessons and selling English and Chinese homemade pastries. You can learn more about those early days in my post “Starting Out in Brazil: Kindness from a Stranger.”
Nineteen months after our arrival in Brazil, President José Sarney signed a Decree-Law permitting all illegal immigrants (estimated at about 500,000) to regularize their situation with the Departamento de Polícia Federal (DPF). About six months later (if I remember correctly), we received Protocols from the DPF – valid for 180 days, awaiting a Registro Provisório (Provisional Register). You can learn more about the legal process in my post “How we obtained permanent residence in Brazil.”
With my provisional work permit, I went in search of a job. With the help of my “Brazilian Friend of the Heart,” I obtained a secretarial position at a private school offering courses in British English and culture. Starting at the lowest rung with Brazil’s minimum wage, I began my slow climb up the professional ladder. It would take me 12 years before I felt financially secure to move out of the low-income housing project of 600 apartment units into one of the city’s upscale neighborhoods.
LikeLike
This is great, Rosaliene! Your political voice is at its most compelling when it references your own experiences – when your young self pops up from the large political context and allow us to look through her eyes.. And really, her story is so inherently interesting that almost any detail of memory will work:
: from a Guyana childhood to immigration and beyond
. For example, the fact that you were among Brazil’s most poorly paid gives you an instant authority re. several social spheres, regardless of later upward mobility. Such as Brazil’s 2002 elections, your support of Dilma Rouseff, your understanding of the oligarchy’s ruthless contempt for the mass of the people
It was so obvious when they were taking Rouseff down – its literally the same old elite her ticket beat in 2008, backed by the same CIA plan used to destroy socialist governments in Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicarauga and El Salvador.
It was only 8 years ago that American activists swore to protect the Rouseff government. And now no one seems to remember her!
Thanks again for this post.
LikeLike
“This is great, Rosaliene! Your political voice is at its most compelling when it references your own experiences – when your young self pops up from the large political context and allow us to look through her eyes.. And really, her story is so inherently interesting that almost any detail of memory will work: from a Guyana childhood to immigration and beyond”
~ Thanks, Claire. I’ll keep that in mind. Sometimes the memories are too painful to put into words.
LikeLike
P.S. In case you may not have heard, Temer faces serious corruption charges and may well be given the boot. All but a few of his all-male, all-white cabinet members are also being jnvestigated for various crimes of corruption
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed, Claire. At the time of those disclosures/developments, I was still in mourning to share the news.
LikeLike
Ah… good news at last. Thank for that comment.
LikeLike
Prayers for your country. xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Inese. Brazil was my previous adopted country (1987-2003). The people of Brazil remain close to my heart.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m sorry I didn’t show more sensitivity, No wonder you don’t always bring things up! I should always assume your lived experience re these issues, and look to the role I and others play in making them too painful for you to discuss.(I’m just saying it plays a role, not that its the cause)
XXOO
LikeLike
That’s okay, Claire. No offense taken. Did not think you insensitive. Raising my sons alone in Brazil was a traumatic life experience. We survived because of the good people we met and befriended along the way. My gratitude runs deep. My US-Brazil trade website is my way of giving back.
LikeLike
(-:
LikeLike
The removal of President Dilma Rousseff and her party from office would not put an end to corruption in Brazil. We must stop looking at corruption as something natural. That deafening demand becomes harder and harder to ignore. Neither radicalization, nor relativism can contribute to cultural change. We must have new, reformist leaders. The problem is that those leaders have not yet appeared. But maybe they’re out there, not knowing why other drivers are flashing their headlights.
LikeLike
Danny, thanks for dropping by and sharing your perspective on this issue. President Dilma Rousseff was impeached by the corrupt members of her coalition government who are now running the show. I’ve never met any Brazilian who thinks that corruption is “something natural.” The challenge for Brazilians, as well as for us here in the US, is deterring corruption and punishing offenders. New, reformist leaders must come from among our Millennials.
LikeLike