OLYMPICS ENDED, BRAZIL’S POLITICAL CRISIS BOILS OVER
RIO DE JANEIRO •Thelast medals have been handed out, the athletes have all gone home and the fireworks at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana stadium are fading into memory. Now Brazil’s real drama begins.
Just days after the closing ceremony of the Rio Olympics, Brazilian senators are about to decide whether to permanently remove President Dilma Rousseff from office, the climax of a monthslong political battle that has laid bare deep polarization in Latin America’s largest nation.
The Aug. 5-21 Summer Games were a welcome distraction for many Brazilians angry over endemic corruption and an emerging economy that has gone from analysts’ darling to severe recession.
Street parties erupted when their beloved soccer team won gold but with the Olympic bash over, “we return to the divisions, to the fighting,” said Fabiano Angelico, a political consultant based in Sao Paulo.
On Thursday the Senate begins the final phase of the trial of Rousseff, who was suspended in May for allegedly breaking fiscal rules in managing the federal budget. Several days of deliberations, including an address to lawmakers by Rousseff herself, will culminate in a definitive vote expected early next week.
Rousseff’s opponents argue that she used sleightof-hand budgeting to mask the depth of government deficits and ultimately exacerbated the growing economic crisis, which has led to 10 per cent inflation, daily announcements of layoffs and repeated credit downgrades from ratings agencies.
Brazil’s first female president denies any wrongdoing, pointing out that previous presidents used similar accounting measures. Rousseff alleges that something more nefarious is at play: a bloodless “coup” by corrupt legislators who want to oust her so they can water down a wide-ranging investigation into billions of dollars in kickbacks at the state oil company, Petrobras.
Much of the alleged graft happened over the 13 years that Rousseff’s left-leaning Workers’ Party has been in power. Several businessmen and top politicians have been jailed, including some connected to Rousseff’s government, and a number of opposition officials are also in investigators’ sights.
About 60 per cent of lawmakers in the Senate and lower house are being investigated for various crimes, many related graft and the Petrobras scandal.