MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Praise and support for Brazilian president in her fight against corruption
Rousseff has lost so far five ministers and there could be more in the pipeline The Secretary General of Ibero-America Enrique Iglesias praised the “courage” displayed by Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff who has been challenged by serious corruption allegations involving members of her cabinet.
“Corruption is something unpleasant and regrettable in any part of the world and obviously also in Brazil” said Iglesias during an event to announce the launching of the New Economic Forum in Madrid, Spain.
“What is really encouraging is the firmness with which the President has addressed publicly the issue and resolved it, which is how it had to be done. This speaks highly of the courage of the president of Brazil to face those problems with no delays or contemplations”, he added.
Since Rousseff took office last January first her cabinet has lost five ministers, four of them to strong corruption allegations, exposed by the press.
The corruption allegations knocked out the cabinet chief, ministers of Agriculture, Transport and Tourism. Nelson Jobim from Defence stopped down over policy differences.
Before the ministers stepped down the Brazilian president was under strong pressure on veiled threats from the involved parties belonging to the ruling coalition.
But Ms Rousseff ordeal is not over: her Sports Minister has also been accused of involvement in corruption. The issue is particularly damaging since Orlando Silva is also involved in the organization of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.
Before leaving for a tour of African countries the Brazilian president met with Silva and said she would not pre-judge and accepted the arguments from the minister.
However on her return there could be news if Silva does not provide undisputable evidence he has not been involved in an alleged scam to ‘skim’ funds distributed among non government organizations which promote sports among Brazilian poor children as has been claimed by former aides.
Both Silva and his predecessor in the post belong to the Communist party of Brazil.
Top Comments
Disclaimer & comment rules-
Read all commentsBrasil has 'lost' five Ministers of State and a cruise-ship full of minor criminals.
Oct 19th, 2011 - 08:42 pm 0But these bad guys - corrupt millionaires, many of them - are usually allowed to step down and never face a high court criminal conviction and jail.
They are therefore able to step back onto their gravy-train as soon as they can buy a ticket on the back of the vote for a popular 'people's politician'.
The Ficha Limpa is supposed to catch these people and ensure that they never ever again hold a position of public or political office. Has it been circumvented by the corrupt establishment? . . . what do YOU think?
The governing coalition includes the Communist Party. When the coalition is put together to form the government, the parties press for particular ministries; the Communists get Sport in sequential administrations.
This enables them to have many years of manipulating the billions of Real$, skimming off the 20%+ year in, year out.
Silva, the Minister, is just the latest in a long line of individuals finding themselves in such a position. A man from a *poor* family, he is suddenly a VERY rich man. This does not happen by chance.
It has taken me longer than it should have done to understand why Brasil's governing coalitions are SO big, and why the parties pitch hard for specific government departments. Once a department sets up its own gravy-train it wants continuity of flow of the billions into 'their' politicians; it also does not want other parties to get sight of the books and the scams, skimming and frauds and thefts.
As each day goes by I learn a little more about the corrupt world of South American politics.
And as each day goes by I realise that these countries will NEVER become developed.
Too many people at the top taking too much money from the people, and NOTHING we can do to stop them.
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