Factions backing president and her predecessor to put on show of strength in face of mass protests and moves towards impeachment

Brazil protests: share your photos, videos and experiences (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/17/brazil-protests-share-your-photos-videos-and-experiences)
At the end of a week of extraordinary political drama, constitutional chaos and massive anti-government protests, supporters of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will rally in cities across the country on Friday.

Related: Why is Brazil's government in crisis? – the Guardian briefing (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/17/brazil-government-crisis-briefing-dilma-rousseff-lula-petrobas)
Continue reading... (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/18/brazil-protests-rousseff-lula-supporters-rally-amid-corruption-claims)

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March 18: To the streets for democracy, against the coup [En, Pt, Es]



Supported by the demonstrations of last March 13th and also by illegal and abusive actions of Operation Lava Jato[1] – as was the case of leading coercively the former president Lula to testify in Federal Police – the most reactionary sectors of the neoliberal right – in collusion with the communication monopolies – radicalized the demand for a coup against government. They are largely proclaiming that “in weeks” they will depose President Dilma Rousseff.

The truth is another. Whatever government enthroned by a coup impeachment will lead the country to a conflagration, which will aggravate the political instability and deepen the recession. There is no solution outside of democracy. Just in 2018, by presidential elections, it will be possible change the Presidency, in according to the Federal Constitution.

In this critical moment of country life, the PCdoB calls upon democratic and popular forces, even those that are separated by legitimate divergences, so that we will converge to unite around democracy, which is the most precious good of the nation.

That we will unite us, too, all men and women moved by the conviction that justice is not confronting the democratic rule of law. To unite all men and women who respect the divergences and reject the culture of intolerance and hatred.

PCdoB calls: March 18, we must go to the streets for democracy, against the coup. Let the streets with multicolour social organizations, democracy and Brazil. March 18 all to the streets, by the retaking of economic growth and job creation.

Brasília, March 15th, 2016

The National Political Commission of the Communist Party of Brazil -PCdoB

[1] Lava Jato operation: Police and judicial operation supposed to combat corruption, planned to criminalize the Workers’ Party and President Dilma (N.T.)

http://www.solidnet.org/brazil-communist-party-of-brazil/cp-of-brazil-march-18-to-the-streets-for-democracy-against-the-coup-en-pt-es

What ya need to know about anti-gov demonstrations in Brazil:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CduMR70UIAAemCZ.jpg

White, petty booj, anti-Dilma Rousseff citizens off to the 'barricades' with black nanny in tow.

CP of Brazil, We denounce that is underway a coup in Brazil [En, Pt]
Tuesday, 05 April 2016 12:57 Communist Party of Brazil E-mail Print PDF
We denounce that is underway a coup in Brazil [En, Pt]

Recently, the secretary of Politics and International Relations of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), José Reinaldo Carvalho, gave interviews to various media linked to communist and revolutionary parties and organizations from numerous countries in Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia. We publish here a synthesis of the main questions and answers.

How do you evaluate the demonstrations against Dilma Rousseff’s destitution and in favour of democracy? Which reasons support the classification of the impeachment process as a coup?

José Reinaldo Carvalho: The Republic’s Constitution, approved in 1988 by a Constitutional Assembly, in place after the dictatorship was overcome, established the impeachment as a judicially valid mechanism to destitute the President of the Republic. The point of departure for that is that the President commits a responsibility crime. Well, the authors of the impeachment process did not present evidences nor proofs that President Dilma Rousseff has committed any responsibility crimes. They accuse her of having failed in the execution of the Government’s Budget because she took extraordinary administrative and financial measures to assure, in a moment of monetary restrictions stemming from economic hardships, the realization of the public and social policies, and to finance the economic development. Therefore, the motivations for the impeachment process are political, a pretext to, under the cover of a judicial argument, overthrow the Republic’s President. The destitution of the highest chief in the country, when she did not commit a responsibility crime is, thus, a form of political coup, a coup d’état. This is why we say – and we do so as a form of denunciation – that a coup d’état is under way, a coup built in phases, and it is in outright execution. Obviously, this time it is different from the 1964 coup, since there is a different context in the world, and different as well is the national political context. The methods are also of a different nature. In 1964, a military coup was committed. Now, this is an institutional and media coup, in which sectors of the police and judicial apparatus act in a plot with the neoliberal and conservative opposition. As for the massive demonstrations in March 31, as well as those of March 18, they were huge and showed the capacity for mobilization of the people’s forces, as well as the profound democratic consciousness of the Brazilian people.

Which are the origins of the political crisis?

José Reinaldo Carvalho: The current political crisis has its origin, more immediately, the fact is that the neoliberal and conservative opposition – represented by the contemporary right wing’s parties, led by PSDB. It has its ramifications in the private and monopolized media, in sectors of the police and judicial apparatus – did not accept the fourth and consecutive defeat, in the last Presidential elections, in October 2014. This opposition imagined it could, in those elections, stop the progressive cycle inaugurated in the country with Lula’s first election, in 2002, which despite the gaps, enabled the country to advance in achieving important political and social changes, in the exercise of the international solidarity and in the construction of an independent Latin America. Viewed from a broader perspective, the current political crisis is also an expression of the structural conditions and the deep conflicts in the Brazilian society. It is the expression of a struggle between two paths, of the country’s historical crossroad. The path that can take Brazil to affirm itself as a democratic, independent and socially just nation, in antagonism with that which conduces to the maintenance of the privileges of the dominant classes, of the underdevelopment and an undemocratic political power.

However, corruption is a reality.

José Reinaldo Carvalho: Indeed. Corruption is among the political system’s structural defects, a chronic disease, and combating it requires political, administrative and judicial energetic positioning. It is necessary to say that, despite the mistakes committed, it was during the government of the Workers’ Party that the supervision, control and fight against corruption have worked the most, and with complete autonomy. The coup parties are the most corrupt in the country’s political system. The fight against corruption undertaken by them is a feeble slogan. It is a struggle created for political ends.

Is justice above any suspicions?

José Reinaldo Carvalho: Absolutely, not.

The right-wing parties are not the only ones in the offensive against the President. PMDB, allied to the government, has just left it. What is the goal and who can PT still count on?

José Reinaldo Carvalho: PMDB has not been a progressive force anymore, for a long time. Its presence in the government obeys the imperatives of political conveniences – to be close to power to obtain advantages and better conditions to develop customer policies. Something proper to the Brazilian political and parties’ system, still precariously based on a political and ideological point of view. PMDB has within it a strong centre right wing, which is currently predominant. To avoid the impeachment, it is necessary can count on the people’s strength on the streets and on a myriad of demonstrations pushed forward from organized sectors of society, since the workers’ masses, liberal professionals, academic intellectuals, the cultural and artistic world, judicial and sports spheres. At level of Parliament environment, government should count on the support of micro-parties and of individual parliamentarians, independently of their parties’ positions.

If President Dilma overcomes the impeachment, how will she be able to govern until the end of her mandate?

José Reinaldo Carvalho: If the government wins the battle, it will have to promote a new political pact, which will require the people’s mobilization and the unity among democratic and progressive forces, pushed forward from an emergency program, concerned with surmounting the economic crisis and prevent its effects from hitting the people’s rights and achievements.

What is possible to foresee in case the President is overthrown?

José Reinaldo Carvalho: If the President is overthrown, the government emerging will eventually be under the leadership of the Republic’s Vice President, Michel Temer, who is also PMDB’s President, and the political instability will probably aggravate. It will be a government of national treason, with authoritarian tendencies, in despite of the Constitutional façade Michel Temer displays; an anti-popular government, committed to an agenda elaborated according to the national and international monopolist-financial capital. Certainly, there will be an open struggle, an energetic opposition by PT, PCdoB and other progressive parties, and by the social movement, against these coup forces forming the government. In any scenario, Brazil will live stormy moments, which will require lucidity, unmasking, wideness, and a spirit of resistance and struggle from the leftist parties.

Why the PT, which won four consecutive Presidential elections, could never obtain a comfortable majority in the two Congress Houses?

José Reinaldo Carvalho: This is the reflex of a correlation of forces still too unfavourable for the progressive forces; it reveals the enormous political power of the dominant classes. It is necessary to remember that Brazil is a Federal Republic and that the oligarchic powers are still too Strong in the units (states) composing the Federation. Furthermore, it is necessary to highlight that the economic powers exert Strong influence on the electoral campaigns. The electoral campaigns’ financing is private and entrepreneurial. For that matter, this is one of the sources of corruption.

Is a reform of the political system possible?

José Reinaldo Carvalho: The political system’s reform is one of the indispensable and urgent structural reforms. The forces and convictions to do it are not gathered yet. However, it is evident that the current political system has failed and does not serve the democratic and social struggle of the progressive forces. To reform the political system is one of the most demanding and urgent tasks to achieve Brazil’s broader and deeper democratization.

What implications the crisis has to action of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB)?

José Reinaldo Carvalho: PCdoB, with PT, other progressive parties and social movements, backs President Dilma’s government, rejects the coup, is resolute on the success of the people’s demonstrations defending democracy, and it is deep into political activities in the scope of the Legislative houses to avoid the impeachment. PCdoB considers that the political battle underway has strategic meaning, and it will exert strong impact on the workers’ and the Brazilian people’s struggle, as well as on all of Latin America’s, for their national and social emancipation. This is not only PCdoB’ stance, but also of what I could call responsible left.

http://www.solidnet.org/brazil-communist-party-of-brazil/cp-of-brazil-we-denounce-that-is-underway-a-coup-in-brazil-en-pt

The Man Who Wants to Impeach Rousseff Named in Panama Papers

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Brazilian lawmaker Eduardo Cunha has been implicated in the Panama Papers. | Photo: AFP
Published 4 April 2016

Brazilian lawmaker Eduardo Cunha, who claims he wants to root out corruption, is again exposed as a criminal.

Brazilian House Speaker Eduardo Cunha, who is leading a fierce attempt to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, has been implicated in the Panama Papers for receiving bribes linked to offshore companies involved in the country’s Petrobras state oil scandal, underlining the hypocrisy of the campaign against Rousseff in the noble name of rooting out corruption.

Cunha, of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party or PMDB that recently broke with Rousseff's Workers' Party, was paid bribes allegedly funded by Portuguese business mogul Idalecio de Castro Rodrigues de Oliveira. According to the leaks, Oliveira owned a conglomerate of 14 companies registered in the British Virgin Islands from 2003 to 2011.

Oliveira’s Lusitania Group conglomerate also entered into a partnership with Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras, at the center of massive corruption probes in Brazil, specifically what’s known as the Lava Jato or Car Wash scandal. A dozen of the 14 companies in his offshore business empire were incorporated “just months before his agreement with Petrobras.”

Oliveira was linked to the Lava Jato scandal last October, after Brazilian prosecutors launched an investigation into the operation in 2014.

In 2011, “Oliveira wired US$10 million to a Swiss bank account held by Joao Augusto Rezende Henriques, a lobbyist for Brazilian party PMDB,” according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, involved in reporting the Panama Papers. Shortly after, “Rezende Henriques wired US$1.5 million to a Swiss bank account controlled by Eduardo Cunha,” ICIJ continued.

Cunha, facing possible impeachment over his involvement in the Petrobras scandal, is accused of receiving US$5 million in kickbacks between 2006 and 2012 and hiding the earnings in Swiss bank accounts. The PMDB lawmaker has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and “vehemently denies” the allegations revealed by the Panama Papers, ICIJ reported.

Meanwhile, Cunha, a self-proclaimed enemy of Dilma Rousseff, has been the key figure in leading an attempt to impeach the president in a shaky bid to fight corruption.

He and other political opponents have latched on widespread corruption scandals to try to boot Rousseff from power as frustration among the country’s wealthy elite and conservative political factions grows over the inability to beat the PT at the ballot box.

But the Panama Papers have further outed Cunha and his PMDB allies for their questionable crusade against government fraud, since he and his party are more deeply implicated in dirty money. The leak comes as Rousseff’s defense is set to make its final arguments on Monday in attempt to block the impeachment process against her from moving forward.

At least 57 officials implicated in the Petrobras scandal opened over 100 offshore companies in tax havens through Mossack Fonseca, the Panama Papers reveal. Among them is Joao José Pereira de Lyra, Brazil’s richest former lawmaker with a fortune of about US140 million who served as a lawmaker and senator multiple times over the years.

In what is being described as the largest leak in journalistic history, the Panama Papers are a set of over 11.5 million documents dated back to the late 1970’s that reveal how the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca helped world leaders, wealthy elites, and celebrities hide assets in shell companies and offshore tax havens.

The initial leak is set to be followed by further disclosures, including the publication of a full list of more than 200,000 offshore companies.

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