[lit-ideas] Re: Lula, the Leftist Revolutionary, Meets Dr. Seuss
- From: Eric <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 03:10:41 -0500
Yeah here it is. The Squid's ex-Trotskyite Finance
Minister resigned amid corruption charges today. -EY
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/28/america/brazil.php
Brazil's finance minister quits
By Larry Rohter The New York Times
TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2006
Buenos Aires Facing a long and politically
damaging impeachment trial, Brazilian Finance
Minister Antonio Palocci resigned on Monday, the
latest victim of the corruption scandal that has
debilitated President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
and his government for nearly a year.
Da Silva immediately named Guido Mantegna, a
former planning minister and president of Brazil's
national development bank, as Palocci's
replacement. Mantegna is identified with much the
same market-friendly policies as his predecessor,
and no changes are expected in an approach that
has won the approval of Wall Street and the
International Monetary Fund.
"Brazil's economy has nothing but clear skies
ahead, even though the finance minister is going
through hell," Palocci, a Trotskyite turned fiscal
conservative, said in a speech last week in Sao Paulo.
His resignation came as the financial markets in
Brazil were closing, but investors and brokerage
houses had already taken the prospect that he
might resign into account, and little turmoil in
exchange rates or country risk ratings was
anticipated in the next few days.
The scandal that has crippled Brazil's first
popularly elected left-wing government began last
May, when a postal-service official was filmed
accepting a small bribe while discussing
government contracts. Since then, hearings in
Congress and press investigations have led to
accusations of tens of millions of dollars in
under-the-table payments to members of Congress as
well as the illegal financing of da Silva's own
presidential campaign four years ago.
Da Silva himself has not been directly implicated
in the accusations of accepting payoffs, and he
has denied any involvement.
But his chief of staff resigned last June, shortly
after congressional hearings began, and the
president, secretary-general, and treasurer of the
governing Workers' Party were also forced to step
down because of their involvement in the scandal.
Palocci, a physician, first came under fire last
August, when he was accused of accepting bribes
while he was the mayor of a city in Sao Paulo
state during the 1990s.
He denied those charges, which have not been
proven, and his position seemed secure until new
accusations surfaced recently that he had
frequented a luxury villa in Brasilia, the
capital, where some of his aides and associates
solicited, received, and distributed bribes and
consorted with prostitutes.
In late January, Palocci told congressional
investigators during televised questioning that he
had never been at the house. But the caretaker was
located, and earlier this month he testified that
he had seen Palocci there on several occasions.
Shortly afterward, the caretaker's bank records,
which showed a large recent deposit, were
illegally leaked to news organizations. The
implication was that he had been paid to attack
Palocci, but the maneuver backfired. The caretaker
said the money was a bequest from his father, and
the president of the government bank where he had
his account told the police on Monday that he had
given the bank records to Palocci, according to
news reports.
As a result, the country's main opposition group,
the Brazilian Social Democratic Party, filed an
impeachment complaint against Palocci last week,
accusing him of malfeasance in office, perjury,
and abuse of power.
With da Silva expected to announce a run for a
second term soon, a trial promised to be damaging
to his party, especially if, as apparently was the
opposition's intention, it dragged into the
campaign season.
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