President Dilma Rousseff celebrates with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on the first day of her term in office.
In Brazil, arrest of top Lula aide José Dirceu leaves top Workers’ Party icons just one degree removed from the ongoing Petrobras scandal
The arrest of Workers’ Party (PT) fixer, “strongman” and co-founder José Dirceu on corruption charges will send shivers down the spine of President Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. They may also feel a little sense of déjà vu.
For months, parallels with the infamous 2005 mensalão scandal — which broke during Lula’s time in office — have been apparent as news from the developing “Carwash” investigation, related to the state-run oil company Petrobras, breaks.
One of the key links between the two scandals, which have sullied the reputation of Brazil’s Workers’ Party (PT) is Dirceu, investigators believe. During Lula’s time as president, Dirceu was responsible for approving appointments at Petrobras.
Federal prosecutor Carlos Fernando dos Santos Lima said yesterday that the Petrobras “scheme” was set up by Dirceu, suggesting the PT official was not responsible for day-to-day operational decisions at Petrobras but rather, giving the nod to and setting the outlines for the illegal behaviour.
“As in any company, a criminal organization has a pyramidal structure,” Lima said. “These people say do it and others do it… they are responsible for putting the people in the right places.” he added, insisting that Dirceu had “repeated the scheme of the mensalão,” using the same “DNA” to create the scheme.
Dirceu himself is currently serving time for his role in the mensalão, though he is under house arrest after spending just 18 months of his 11-year sentence in jail.
According to Lima’s statements at a press conference, Dirceu received at least 35 million reais, or more than US$10 million through a consulting firm named JD Assesoria e Consultoria.
“As in any company, a criminal organization has a pyramidal structure,” Lima said. “These people say do it and others do it… they are responsible for putting the people in the right places.”
Considerable inroads
The current “Carwash” scandal and the offshoots of the probe have already made considerable inroads into Brazilian politics and the PT.
More than 50 politicians have been questioned, officials say, including former president Fernando Collor and the PT’s Treasurer João Vaccari, who remains under arrest. New allegations are emerging almost daily. In general though, the investigation has retained a few degrees of separation from Rousseff and her mentor, Lula.
Rousseff, who headed Petrobras’ board of directors when much of the corruption took place, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. But she has faced calls for her impeachment of late however as the scandal grows, Brazil’s stuttering economy fails to spark and reports emerged of alleged campaign finance irregularities.
Lula, once hailed for his time leading the country during an economic boom has seen his reputation harmed by the corruption scandals which date back back to his time in the driving seat.
Last month, investigators announced they were opening a formal inquiry to investigate whether Lula had improperly lobbied for the country’s largest engineering firm, Odebrecht. His NGO, the Lula Institute, said they were surprised by the allegations.
Yesterday’s developments will now test the popularity of the ex-leaders — and the party — even more. No longer is the graft scandal safely out of reach — now it’s just one step away from Brazil’s most well-known and successful politicians of the last 20 years.
With Dirceu’s arrest, “they (have) now reached the second-most important person in the history of the Workers’ Party” after Lula, analyst Carlos Melo, a political analyst at Insper, a São Paulo business school, told the Wall Street Journal yesterday.
Adding to the PT’s problems are rumours of discontent in their governing coalition. Last month, Lower House Speaker Eduardo Cunha — the man responsible for deciding if impeachment proceedings should be brought against Rousseff — broke with the government, although the rest of his Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) remains part of the coalition today.
With Dirceu’s arrest, “they (have) now reached the second-most important person in the history of the Workers’ Party” after Lula, analyst Carlos Melo said.
Rousseff’s Vice-President Michel Temer, also from the PMDB, has confirmed however that his party will break with the PT — but not until 2018.
PSDB calls for Dilma, Lula to be investigated
The country’s main opposition, the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), renewed their calls yesterday for prosecutors to investigate both Rousseff and Lula, especially considering the arrest of Dirceu.
“If the justification for prison for Dirceu was that he contributed to form the corruption scheme at Petrobras, this permits an investigation to be opened about Dilma and Lula,” Aloísio Nunes Ferreira, the head of the PSDB’s bloc of senators said.
Dirceu’s arrest, “represents a strong blow to the Workers’ Party,” Nunes Ferreira added.
Senator Alvaro Dias, also from the PSDB, said that Dirceu was the most powerful politician during the PT president’s first terms in office.
“He (Dirceu) was at the the epicentre of the PT’s political decisions, and when Lula named (his ministers) he converted him into a sort of prime minister. Of the PT’s leaders, he (Dirceu) was the most influential.”
With the investigation continuing and Dirceu detained, it’s impossible to know how high up the corruption went, Dias added.
The government, meanwhile, was keen to play down the developments. Defence Minister Jaques Wagnertold the economy and Brazil’s companies “are still working.” The country’s citizens may not be quite so dismissive.
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Originally published in the Buenos Aires Herald, on Tuesday, August 4, 2015.
Link: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/195602/scandal-creeps-one-step-closer-to-pt-presidents.