More on Brazil impeachment - 05/13/2016

Another US-Sponsored Coup? Brazil's New President Was An Embassy Informant For US Intelligence

Zero Hedge,

13 May, 2016

When we explained yesterday the next steps in the Dilma Rousseff impeachment process, we predicted that "Brazil's problems are only just starting" for several reasons, chief among them being that the man who is now Brazil's next active president, Michel Temer, is almost as unpopular as the president he is replacing, and is stained by scandals of his own.

As AP noted, "Michel Temer, who hasn't won an election on his own in a decade, is famed as a backstage wheeler-dealer, and his critics say he's leading the plot to replace his boss, embattled President Dilma Rousseff." And with Temer now the acting president, the AP frames the big question as follows: can he avoid ouster himself.

Among his documented transgressions, he signed off on some of the allegedly illegal budget measures that led to the impeachment drive against Rousseff and has been implicated, though never charged, in several corruption investigations.

Best was AP's snide addition that "the son of Lebanese immigrants, Temer is one of the country's least popular politicians but has managed to climb his way to the top, in large part by building close relationships with fellow politicians as leader of the large but fractured Brazilian Democratic Movement Party."

However, as much as we would like to believe that Temer is simply the real world version of Frank Underwood, there is a much simpler explanation for the 75-year-old's dramatic ascent to the peak of Brazil's power elite.

As it turns out, the Temer presidency may be nothing more than the latest manifestation of the US state department's implementation of yet another puppet government. We know this because earlier today,Wikileaks released evidence via a declassified cable that Brazil's new interim president was an embassy informant for US intelligence and military.

According to the whistleblowing website, Temer communicated with the US embassy in Brazil and such content would be classified as "sensitive" and "for official use only" (link).

Wikileaks brought attention to two cables, one dated January 11, 2006, the other June 21, 2006. One shows a document sent from Sao Paolo, Brazil, to - among other recipients - the US Southern Command in Miami. In it, Temer discusses the political situation in Brazil during the presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Regarding the 2006 elections, when Lula was re-elected, Temer shared scenarios in which his party (PMDB) would win the elections.  He declined to predict the race, however, but said there would be a run-off and that "anything could happen."

Temer said the PMDB would elect between 10 and 15 governors that year, and that the party would have the most representatives in the Senate and thus the House of Representatives. This would mean that the elected president would have to report to PMDB rule.  "Whoever wins the presidential election will have to come to us to do anything," Temer reportedly said.

As a reminder, the last time the US instituted a puppet government, was in 2014 when in yet another "bloodless coup", the president of Ukraine was overthrown and replaced with a billionaire oligarch, a scenario comparable to the one in Brazil.

We don't have to remind readers that as a result of the Ukraine coup, relations between the US and Russia are multi-decade lows, the cold war is back and - as of yesterday, so is the nuclear arms race. We are curious what the consequence of yet another US state coup will be, this time in Latin America's largest country.

Wikileaks Confirms: Brazil's New President Is a US Asset

Michel Temer actively cooperated with US intelligence

Now it's official. The impeachment of left-leaning Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff by Brazil's Congress has likely turned the country from a vital player in the "BRICS" group of nations seeking a multi-polar world to another US client state in Latin America.

Wikileaks cables reveal that the new Acting President Michel Temer is an informant for US intelligence

Historical speech of Brazilian President Dilma Roussef (with English Subtitles)

An IMMENSE “thank you!!” to D. for translating and subtitling this for us and to VV for helping me with this issue. The Saker

(press ‘cc’ for English captions)

Transcript:

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, journalists.

Good morning, here’s Congressmen, Ministers,

Good morning everyone here.

I will make a statement to the press, so it’s not an interview, it is a statement.

I wanted first to tell you, and say also, to all Brazilians, that the impeachment process was opened by the Senate, and ordered the suspension of my term of office for a maximum period of 180 days.

I was elected president by 54 million Brazilian citizens, and it is in this condition, the condition of a President elected by 54 million, that I address you at this decisive moment for Brazilian democracy and our future as a nation.

What is at stake in the impeachment process is not only my mandate, what is at stake is the respect to the polls, the sovereign will of the Brazilian people and the Constitution.

What is at stake are the achievements of the last thirteen years, the gains of the poorest people, as well as the gains of the middle class. The protection of children, young people access to Universities and to Technical Schools.

The value of the minimum wage, doctors attending to the population. The realization of the dream of home ownership with “Minha Casa, Minha Vida”.

What is at stake is also the great finding of Brazil, the pre-salt.

What is at stake is the future of the country, the opportunity and hope to move forward forever more.

Before the Senate decision, I want once again to clarify the facts and report the risks to the country of a fraudulent impeachment: a real coup.

Since I was elected, the opposition, dissatisfied, called recount, tried to nullify the elections and then went on to openly conspiring for my impeachment.

They plunged the country in a permanent state of political instability, preventing the recovery of the economy, with the sole purpose of taking by force what they did not win at the polls.

My government has been the target of intense and incessant sabotage.

The clear objective has been preventing me to rule and thus forge the environment conducive to the coup.

When an elected president is revoked on charges of a crime he did not commit, the name given to it in the democratic world is not impeachment: it is a coup.

I have not committed a crime of responsibility, there is no reason for impeachment proceedings, I do not have accounts abroad, I never received bribes, I never condoned corruption.

This process is a fragile process, legally inconsistent, an unfair process, initiated against an honest and innocent person.

It is the largest of the brutalities that can be committed to any human being: to punish him for a crime he did not commit.

There is no more devastating injustice than to condemn the innocent.

Injustice is irreparable evil.

This legal farce, that I am facing, is due to the fact that, as president, I never accepted blackmail of any kind.

I may have made mistakes but have not committed crimes. I am being judged unfairly by having done all that the law authorizes me to do.

The acts I practiced were legal acts, correct, necessary acts, acts of government.

Similar acts were performed by the previous Brazilian presidents, before me.

It was not a crime in their time, and also is not a crime now.

They accuse me of having published six supplementation Decrees, six additional credit Decrees and, in so doing, have committed crime against the Budget Law – LOA.

It is false because the Decrees followed authorizations provided by law.

They treat as a crime an everyday management act.

They accuse me of delaying payments of “Plano Safra”, it is false.

I have not determined anything about it. The law does not require my participation in the implementation of this Plan (“Plano Safra”).

My accusers can not even say which unlawful act I have practiced.

What act? Which act?

Moreover, nothing was left to be paid, or any debt remained.

Never in a democracy, the legitimate mandate of an elected president can be stopped because of legitimate acts of budget management.

Brazil can not be the first to do this.

I would also like to address the entire population of my country saying that the coup aims not only to revoke me, to remove a president elected by the vote of millions of Brazilians – direct vote in a fair election.

To dismiss my government, they want actually prevent the execution of the program that was chosen by the majoritarian votes of the 54 million Brazilians.

The coup d’état threatens to ravage not only democracy, but also the achievements that the population reached in recent decades.

All this time, I have been also a zealous guarantor of the democratic rule of law.

My government has not committed any repressive act against social movements, against collective protests, against protesters of any political position.

The risk, the greatest risk to the country at this time is to be directed by a government without any votes.

A government that was not elected by direct vote of the population, a government that will have the legitimacy to propose and implement solutions to the challenges of Brazil.

A government may be tempted to crack down on protesting against him.

A government that is born of a coup.

A fraudulent impeachment.

Born of a kind of indirect election.

A government that is, himself, a big reason for the continuing political crisis in our country.

So, I tell you, all of you, I’m proud to be the first woman elected president of Brazil.

I am proud to be the first woman elected president of Brazil.

In those years, I have exercised my mandate in a dignified and honest way, honoring the votes I received.

On behalf of those votes, and on behalf of all the people of my country, I will fight with all legal instruments available to me to exercise my mandate until the end of my presidencial term, 31st December, 2018.

Destiny always got me many challenges, many great challenges, some appeared to me insuperable, but I managed to overcome them.

I have suffered the unspeakable pain of torture.

The agonizing pain of the disease.

And now I suffer again, the equally unspeakable pain of injustice.

What hurts the most right now is injustice.

What hurts most is to realize that I am the victim of a legal farce and politics.

But I do not subside, I look back and see everything we did.

I look forward and see everything we still need and can do.

The most important is that I can look at myself and see the face of someone who, even marked by time, have the strength to defend ideas and rights.

I fought my whole life for democracy.

I learned to trust the capacity of struggle of our people. I have lived many defeats, and lived big wins.

I confess that I never imagined it would be necessary to fight back against a coup in my country.

Our young democracy, made of struggles, made of sacrifices, even deaths, does not deserve it.

In recent months, our people took to the streets. It took to the streets in defense of more rights, more advances. That’s why I’m sure that people will know to say no to the coup.

Our people are wise, and has historical experience.

Brazilians who are contrary to the coup, regardless of party positions, to all of them I make a call: remain mobilized, united and at peace.

The struggle for democracy has no end date.

It is permanent struggle, which requires us constant dedication.

The fight for democracy, I repeat, has no end date.

The fight against the coup is long, it is a fight that can be won, and we will win.

This victory depends on us all.

Let’s show the world that there are millions of supporters of democracy in our country.

I know, and many here know, especially our people know that history is made through fighting.

And it is always worth fighting for democracy.

Democracy is the right side of history.

We will never give up, I will never give up fighting.

Thank you all very much.

Dilma Slams Brazil's Coup-Imposed All White, All Male Cabinet

TeleSUR,

13 May, 2016

Ousted Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said she was sorry that Brazil's acting government does not reflect its cultural diversity.

The ousted Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff spoke today at a press conference, during which she addressed her plans forward in the current political crisis.

While answering questions, she spoke about the white face of acting President Michel Temer, who was installed after the political coup. "I'm sorry that there are no women or blacks in the new cabinet," the ousted president said.

The new cabinet was announced on May 12, and it is entirely composed of white males.

The makeup of Temer’s new cabinet also mirrors the profile of the Senate that voted to oust Rousseff. According to an analysis by BBC Brasil, the 81-member Senate is 80 percent white men, with just six Black men and 11 women, only one of whom is Black.

The cabinet does not reflect the reality of Brazil's population, which, of course, is nearly half female. There is also a high percentage of Brazilians with African, Indigenous and mixed backgrounds that lack representation. 

Some of the ministers are also said to be embroiled in corruption. Temer himself faces investigation for bribery and could face possible impeachment. He is also barred from running from public office for two election cycles, a fact that did not stop the Senate from putting him in place as the unelected president.

"Inequality has a clear face in Brazil. It's the face of women, blacks, the poor, and the youth," Rousseff concluded.

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