Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday dismissed an Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary about the 2016 impeachment of leftist ex-leader Dilma Rousseff as “rubbish.”
Brazil's President Michel Temer faced calls for his removal Wednesday after a newspaper reported that he had been recorded discussing payments of hush money to a corrupt politician. Temer immediately denied the report in O Globo newspaper.
One of Brazil's leading newspapers, Folha de Sao Paulo, reported that the Odebrecht family group confessed to have provided the 2014 presidential ticket campaign, Dilma Rousseff-Michel Temer with millions of dollars in slush funds for the campaign.
A federal court sentenced Brazil’s former speaker of the Lower House, Eduardo Cunha, to more than 15 years in prison on Thursday for corruption, making him the highest-profile political conviction yet in the “Operation Car Wash” scandal. The former politician’s defense team said they would appeal the decision but Cunha will remain imprisoned pending appeal.
Brazilian President Michel Temer reiterated the tough-minded adjustment he has proposed to balance the government's accounts and his support for the private sector's role in the economy, adding that the program is already fostering confidence among investors.
Under the administration of president Mauricio Macri, the relation between Argentina and the US has entered a new dynamic phase and somehow those close links could be affected if the Republican candidate wins on Tuesday, said foreign minister Susana Malcorra.
The corruption-related arrest of a former top Brazilian lawmaker on Wednesday threatens to revive political turmoil and snap the momentum of a government economic reform campaign. Eduardo Cunha was taken into police custody Wednesday on accusations of corruption and money laundering related to oil platform contracts with state-controlled Petrobras. He denies the accusations.
Brazilian President Michel Temer said on Monday the high abstention rate as well as the number of blank and spoiled ballots in local elections on the weekend signaled the disillusionment of Brazilians with their political system. Brazil's electoral authority, the TSE, said the abstention rate averaged 17.5% in Sunday's nationwide polls, up from 15.4% in the municipal elections in 2014.
The gunning down of a string of candidates ahead of nationwide municipal elections this Sunday is stoking fears that Brazil's toxic politics are headed into dangerous new territory. The main headline from Sunday's polls is expected to be the hammering of the populist Workers' Party, which many here blame for Brazil's punishing recession and sprawling corruption scandals.
Brazil's former president Lula da Silva defended himself against corruption charges Thursday, saying the case against him was an attempt to destroy him politically ahead of elections in 2018.Speaking a day after prosecutors accused him of masterminding a massive corruption scheme at state oil company Petrobras, the popular leader launched a wide-ranging defense of his career and legacy.