
Brazil political crisis deepens as President Temer taped arranging bribe - rodrigocoelho
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/brazil-political-crisis-deepens-as-president-temer-reportedly-taped-arranging-bribe/article35039223/
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simiano
Brazilian here, and yeah, we're f __*d. It is not a particular party or
politician, it is all of our political system that is rotten; It produces and
rewards the worst of the worst. Our democracy is very young and fragile (about
thirty years old), we have levels of inequality that are inhumane, an
education system that is not particularly recognized by producing critical
thinkers. The result is a population that is easily manipulated by the
political class and a government that is corrupt to the core and at all
levels.

The current president was the vice president a few months ago, he assumed
after our previous president was impeached. We know that the previous
president was not a saint[1] (there is no way someone becomes president with
clean hands down here) But people honestly thought that, by supporting Dilma's
impeachment, and, by consequence, lowering the influence of the Workers Party
they were helping to clean the country, which is sad.

There is a huge ongoing investigation nicknamed Lava Jato (Car Wash), and man!
oh man! Politicians are going to jail. Owners of big companies accused of
bribing are being forced to cooperate with the justice department and they are
revealing the guts of our political system, and it is not pretty.

There is a saying: Brasil não é para amadores (Brazil is not for amateurs).
House of Cards does not even compare to what is going on here. We hope that
after this storm, the institutions become stronger, and we add a lot of
mechanisms to punish bad politicians and add incentives to the good ones.

[1] My opinion

[EDIT] Punctuation

~~~
sureste
Peruvian here.

You mentioned Lava Jato. That is playing out here as well with Odebrecht being
uncovered as a highly corrupt organization, with ties to every government in
the last 15~ years here.

The funny thing is, most media here covered Brazil's situation very closely
and then it is discovered we are in it too.

~~~
supercanuck
I was just in Peru two weeks ago, and happened to stay in the hotel as the new
Peruvian President, and thus read up on the recent election. This is probably
off topic, but I'm curious what your thoughts on that are.

~~~
sureste
> I was just in Peru two weeks ago, and happened to stay in the hotel as the
> new Peruvian President

???

About our recent elections, on the last couple of them we have been put
through voting for the lesser of the evils somehow. I will give you a bit of
background about our recent elections so you can understand what it was to
have Kuczynski be elected President.

In 2006, we had a second between Alan Garcia (previously President between
'85-'90, a period remembered for having over 6000% inflation) and Ollanta
Humala, a retired commander of the military who was involved in killings of
terrorists and civilians in the 90s during the war against terrorism. Garcia
won because he was perceived as the lesser evil but the truth is that the
people in Lima didn't vote for him in the first round.

In 2011, Ollanta Humala ran again and reached the second round by a large
margin. His opponent, Keiko Fujimori knocked out our current President, Pedro
Pablo Kuczynski. Fujimori is the daughter of Alberto Fujimori, who was
President between '90-'01 and who is now in prison with charges for corruption
and ilicit enrichment, among others. Fujimori resigned his Presidency via fax
from Japan while he was on a trip there. Again, most of Lima did not vote for
either of these candidates and had to settle for Humala because Fujimori's
ties to the 90s were too strong and it is perceived that she only wants to be
President to set her father free. There were rumors that Humala's campaign was
being funded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

So, last year was a surprise when Kuczynski advanced to the second round and
won the Presidency against Fujimori even by a slight margin. He has been
Minister of Economy during one of our best periods in the last 20 years and
has worked with the World Bank and in different positions in the government
over the years.

But it was tense. The people who don't want a Fujimori in the Presidency
really vote against her and those who vote for her are too uneducated to know
better or claim she should be given a chance because "she isn't her father".
Still, her party won the majority in congress and early on they have been
pushing their agenda.

Even now, she seems to be aiming for the 2021 elections.

So, for now we breathe calmly having a competent president in office, but we
really need new people that push for presidency that don't have extreme views
or are too conservative, something which most candidates seem to be prone to.

------
mathattack
It sounds like this corruption issue isn't news.

From his predecessor: [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/11/dilma-
rousseff...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/11/dilma-rousseff-
brazils-ex-president-says-successor-temer-took-bribes)

And other gossip: [http://plus55.com/brazil-politics/2017/05/michel-temer-
first...](http://plus55.com/brazil-politics/2017/05/michel-temer-first-year-
changed-brazil)

~~~
pera
And also:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Collor_de_Mello#Corru...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Collor_de_Mello#Corruption_charges_and_impeachment)

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rodrigocoelho
Also at Bloomberg: Brazil Plunges Back Into Crisis as President Accused
[https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-18/brazi...](https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-18/brazil-
newspaper-alleges-president-involved-in-cover-up-scheme)

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epx
Gossip is that Temer is resigning today 16:00 BRT

~~~
Elivilson
He didn't :(

