Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Wednesday that he has ended the country's biggest-ever corruption probe, “Operation Car Wash,” as there is “no more corruption in the government.”
Brazil's government detailed how it would pay for a new minimum income program called Renda Cidada, with President Jair Bolsonaro and Economy Minister Paulo Guedes still pledging to honor the country's spending cap and fiscal rules.
Former Brazilian president Lula da Silva has offered to back any candidate who can beat far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in the upcoming 2022 elections. Lula is currently barred from seeking elected office as he is fighting two criminal convictions for graft that bar him from running. He can run himself if he is able to overturn the convictions, but he also faces five further indictments.
Prosecutors in Brazil's sprawling Car Wash corruption investigation on Monday charged former President Lula da Silva with money laundering, less than a year after the country's top court ordered him freed from jail while he appealed his conviction in another case.
The office of Brazil’s top prosecutor has decided to keep the country’s famed Car Wash anti-corruption task force active through Jan. 31, it said in a statement on Wednesday, in an at least temporary victory for the embattled group of prosecutors.
A Brazilian court annulled one of nine criminal cases opened for alleged corruption against former President Lula da Silva because there was “insufficient evidence” to continue the process.
Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he regretted protecting communist militant Cesare Battisti from extradition to his native Italy after the ex-fugitive confessed to four murders.
Former president Lula da Silva says he fears a “genocide” in Brazil because of fierce opposition to coronavirus containment measures by current President Jair Bolsonaro, whom he said should be impeached. Lula is a former union leader who fought Brazil's military dictatorship (1964-1985), then became one of the country's most popular presidents with an anti-poverty crusade.
Sergio Moro, Brazil's justice and security minister resigned on Friday after clashing with President Jair Bolsonaro over the sacking of the federal police chief. Moro, a former anti-corruption judge, hit out at “political interference” in the federal police, saying he could not do his job without “autonomy” for the force.
Paris city hall made Brazil’s former leader Lula da Silva an honorary citizen on Monday, in a likely blow to his political enemy President Jair Bolsonaro whose relationship with France has deteriorated. The motion to honour Lula was backed by the city’s Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo.