Recordings of Brazilian president Michel Temer and Senator Aecio Neves, who are allegedly supporting the bribing practices of public officers that were released this week confirm what was already quite clear: Brazil is undergoing the most threatening crisis in its post-democratic history.
A not too long time ago, Brazil was being praised as an exemplary rising power, an ideal example for other developing nations in their struggle against poverty and hunger.
The month of November 2009 was when The Economist magazine announced that Brazil was “taking off.” In February 2015, this same British magazine called Brazil to be a “quagmire.”
People are today demanding the exile of the president and new general elections in direct succession. What is the process by which Brazil arrived at this point?
Brazilians aren’t prepared for a change. Adriano Machado/Reuters
Scandal Compounded
It’s going to take a lot of books explaining Brazil’s decline in detail, but here’s an overview of the event in a flash.
There’s first the obvious issue of corruption in the political arena. For instance, President Temer, as well as Senator Aecio Neves, who was once a rising star in politics, are the newest politicians to be a victim of the corruption scandal currently sweeping the country.
Of the 594 members of Congress as well as senators who were elected in 2014, 318 have been questioned for wrongdoing in the so-called Lava Jato (Carwash) investigation. A large portion of the inquiry is due to their connections with firms like the Oderbrecht construction company as well as JBS, which is a meat-packing company.
One of the former presidents of the Congress, Eduardo Cunha, who was the main force behind the controversial impeachment of the former president Dilma Rousseff, is currently in prison.
The recent rash of investigations and arrests is an indication that the political watchdog organizations, like the public ministry, the attorney general’s office, the public church, and the Federal Police, are better equipped than they were in the past. They gained a lot of autonomy and capabilities under the subsequent Workers’ Party (PT, in its Portuguese acronym) governments of Lula da Silva and Rousseff.
The police have arrested the former speaker of the House, Eduardo Cunha. Rodolfo Buhrer/Reuters
While at first Operation Carwash operated very selectively and targeted the left-wing PT leaders, It is now focusing on people from every major party, including the conservative Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) and the center-right Social Democratic Party of Brazil (PSDB) and the right-wing Progressive Party.
There’s an opportunity for improvement.
They have also frequently implemented unconstitutional and unlawful policies that often affect the freedoms of journalists, citizens, and bloggers.
The media has not been an impartial agent throughout this entire process. In a bid to protect freedom of expression, Major national publications, magazines, and television stations have published judicial proceedings and have publicly condemned politicians prior to the legal process.
In the last few days, information leaked to the public indicated that the journalist, Reinaldo Azevedo, an author and journalist of the conservative viewpoint who has recently been a vocal opponent of judicial investigations, was actually associated with the key players.
