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American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Brazil: Temer acquitted

Brazil’s top electoral court on Friday acquitted President Michel Temer of charges of illegal campaign financing.

the court’s judges voted 4-3 to clear Mr. Temer and former President Dilma Rousseff of charges they used proceeds from the country’s vast Car Wash corruption scandal to fund their 2014 election campaign.

Interestingly,

The majority of the court’s judges said this week that their understanding of electoral law meant that they should only consider evidence available around the time when the case was first filed more than two years ago, before much of the Car Wash evidence was collected.

The trial lasted four days and was televised for a total of 25 hours.

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Brazil: Marcelo Odebrecht paid Lula US$5 million in bribes


Former Odebrecht Organization CEO Marcelo Odebrecht (whose grandfather Norberto founded the company in 1944) presented Judge Sergio Moro documents showing payments totaling nearly US$5 million to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, reports Infobae (link in Spanish).

The payments were made in 2012-2013 through Dilma Rousseff’s right-hand man, Antonio Palocci, who is under trial.

Marcelo Odebrecht, who has been in jail since 2015, reportedly provided the documents in hope of a reduced sentence, according to Infobae.

The WSJ reports Brazil Supreme Court Authorizes Investigation of Top Government Officials in the Lava Jato investigation,

Justice Edson Fachin, who is overseeing cases in Brazil’s high court related to the country’s sprawling Operation Car Wash probe, has given permission for prosecutors to open investigations into at least eight ministers, the leaders of both houses of Congress, and more than 50 senators and federal deputies, according to a document from the court released Tuesday.

The Car Wash investigation, which centers on bid-rigging at the state-controlled oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, has led to more than 100 convictions over the past three years and implicated some of the country’s most influential businessmen and politicians of all major parties.

If you are keeping count, in 2016 Lula was indicted five times on corruption-related charges.

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Organized crime in LatAm: InSight Crime’s report

Steven Dudley and Jeremy McDermott look at the GameChangers 2016: Elites, Organized Crime and Political Firestorms.

Brazil:

In reality, it is her [impeached president Dilma Rousseff’s] Worker’s Party that more resembles a criminal organization than she does. Like a mafia, the party collected and distributed money to keep the wheels of political power moving and laundered that money through elaborate schemes involving construction companies and offshore accounts. Rousseff’s mentor, the celebrated former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was charged with what appeared to be the type of routine payments all Brazilian politicians and ex-politicians get from the movement of state contracts. Indeed, those who ousted Rousseff are facing similar corruption allegations, illustrating just how institutionalized the problem appears to be.

Read the full report on Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, Colombia and Peru. Importantly,

There was, amidst it all, some good news. Honduras purged 40 percent of the top brass of its troubled police force, and Guatemala increased its rehabilitation rate of incarcerated youths. Ecuador increased its drug seizures, while Peru rejected the presidential bid of Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of disgraced and imprisond [sic] former president, Alberto Fujimori amid allegations of drug trafficking and money landering. Peru also registered record lows of coca production.

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Brazil: Dilma’s impeachment, explained in one paragraph

by the WSJ editorial board (emphasis added)

Brazil’s populists blame falling oil prices, but the country’s goods exports, including oil, were only 10.5% of GDP in 2014. The real problem is the left-wing program of lax fiscal and monetary policy, rising protectionism, a complex tax system and huge regulatory state. When the economy collapsed, Ms. Rousseff broke the budget laws to save her presidency.

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Brazil: Breaking – DILMA IMPEACHED

AS EXPECTED, DILMA ROUSSEFF HAS BEEN IMPEACHED. The Brazilian Senate voted 61-20 in favor of permanently removing president Dilma Rousseff from office for breaking the country’s budget laws.

The news just broke on Brazilian media.

I’ll add English language links as they come up.

ROUNDUP
Simón Romero in the NYT.

WSJ: Dilma Rousseff Ousted in Historic Brazil Impeachment Vote. Leftist leader’s removal puts Michel Temer in power through 2018 as nation’s deep political and economic problems persist

Brazil’s Senate voted 61-20 to convict Ms. Rousseff on charges that she used illegal bookkeeping maneuvers to hide a growing budget deficit, deemed an impeachable crime in a nation with a history of hyperinflation and fiscal mismanagement. Two-thirds of Brazil’s 81 senators, or 54 votes, were needed to remove Ms. Rousseff from power.

USA Today: Brazil’s Senate removes President Rousseff from office

Dilma Rousseff stripped of Brazil presidency as Senate votes to impeach her

She also faces a vote on whether she should be banned from public office for eight years.

Lawmakers voted after a five-day hearing in which half a dozen witnesses and more than 60 senators spoke, finishing at around 3.30am this morning.

Ricardo Lewandowski, president of the Supreme Court, was to ask senators to answer by electronic panel the question: “Did the accused, the President of the Republic, Dilma Vana Rousseff, commit the crimes of responsibility corresponding to borrowing from a financial institution controlled by the Union and the opening credits without authorisation from Congress, of which she is accused and should be condemned to the loss of her office, being therefore disqualified from the exercise of any public office for a period eight years?”

However he later agreed to a request to hold two separate votes on the impeachment and the ban.

According to Reuters, senators voted 42-36 to allow Rousseff to retain the right to hold public office.

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The last Monday in August Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

The big news of the week: The announcement that the FARC and the Colombian government had finalized a peace agreement, which, from the looks of it, will not be signed by the president of Colombia or the FARC’s top leader.

Almost unnoticed: Iran’s LatAm tour.

ARGENTINA
Vile: Argentinian pupils wearing Nazi armbands attack Jewish students in ‘Mengele village’

BOLIVIA
Bolivian miners lift roadblock after deputy minister beaten to death

BRAZIL
Spats in Brazil Senate Slow Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. Insult-slinging lawmakers impede process before suspended president takes the stand next week

Brazil Police Seek Charges Against Ex-President Lula da Silva and His Wife. Prosecutors to decide on asking judge to indict the couple over alleged corruption

How USA Today unraveled Ryan Lochte’s Rio drama; US swimmer Lochte ‘won’t respond’ to Brazil false claim charge. Cynics would say that Lochte provides a useful distraction.

CHILE
Chile’s pensions:The perils of not saving. A pioneering system, now in need of reform

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s opposition paints apocalyptic picture of post-conflict, for good reason.

CUBA
Iranian press gloats over Iran’s new Latrine sphere of influence

Chávez y la brujería: cómo Castro llenó Venezuela de espías-babalawos Read more here: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/mundo/america-latina/venezuela-es/article98079552.html#storylink=cpy

Captive Nations Presentation: Cuba, Human Rights and U.S. Policy

ECUADOR
Iran, Ecuador discuss ways to strengthen oil prices

HAITI
Latest Email Leaks Keep Exposing Clinton Foundation Corruption. Still more evidence that the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton’s State Department were one and the same

When Clinton was secretary of state, donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Foundation correlated to large increases in weapons exports from the U.S. to the countries which donated. With Clinton’s help, Clinton Foundation donor Claudio Osorio won a $10 million loan in 2010 from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation meant to be used to build houses in Haiti. Corrupt Venezuelan banker Gonzalo Tirado hired Jonathan Mantz, a Clinton fundraiser, and made a donation to the Clinton Foundation in order to avoid being extradited to Venezuela.

MEXICO
Morelos: Mexican state buries over 100 people in mass grave, including torture victims

Of the 117 bodies found, 17 could not be identified as they were either too badly decomposed or because they had been decapitated or were missing other body parts. Four of the 84 showing signs of having suffered violent deaths had bullet holes in their skulls.

Records Debunk Mexican First Lady’s Story in Miami Condo Scandal. New Investigation Suggests Nieto’s Wife Paid Taxes Legally

According to an investigation by Univision, Rivera asked Pierdant to pay her taxes on the property as “a favor between friends.”

An information request to the Miami-Dade County Tax Office revealed the actress actually hired two law firms to cover those taxes, including during the years of 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015.

PANAMA
The Lost Girls of Panama: The Full Story. The mysterious deaths of two young tourists in Panama puzzled examiners and shocked nations on both sides of the Atlantic; now secretly leaked documents reveal what happened.

PERU
Ayahuasca: a brain-altering chemical, rife with dangerous side-effects, taken in an isolated locations, what could possibly go wrong? Filipino tourist dies in hallucinogenic ritual in Peru.

PUERTO RICO
Last person out, please turn off the lights: Puerto Rico: An island’s exodus

ST. KITTS
ATIP docs for [Justin] Trudeau’s St. Kitts trip reveal undisclosed costs for “Tour Manager”

Not only were taxpayers on the hook for the costs of bringing the government-funded nanny—even though she didn’t appear on one version of the flight manifest—but also thousands of dollars for Trudeau’s tour manager to tag along, even though it wasn’t an official trip of any kind.

URUGUAY
Not very high times: Weeks From Selling Pot, Uruguay Producer Sees Future in Hemp

Weeks before selling its first ounce of pot at pharmacies, International Cannabis Corp. is already betting that hemp – a variety of cannabis – will be a much bigger market than selling the psychoactive part of the plant, according to Chief Executive Officer Guillermo Delmonte. Hemp and its extracts can be used in food, cosmetics and medicine

VENEZUELA
American Joshua Holt now a political prisoner in Venezuela

Venezuela ex-mayor Ceballos sent to prison from house arrest

Venezuela’s Inflation Rate Now Approaching Lunacy Levels

FARC soon to a Venezuelan arepera near you

Venezuela opts for cardboard coffins as wooden caskets become unaffordable. The country is adopting bio-coffins that come at one-fourth the cost of traditional caskets. “Bio-coffins.”



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Brazil: BREAKING NEWS Senate committee votes for Dilma impeachment trial

The Brazilian Senate Special Committee on Impeachment voted 14-5 to go ahead on Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment trial (link in Portuguese).

This concludes the second stage of the process, called a “judgment of pronunciation”, when the Committee decides that there is evidence for a trial. The Senate approved the opening of the impeachment process on May 12. The full Senate will vote on the Committee’s opinion next week on August 9.

The BBC has a graphic on the impeachment process that I posted last April. The process is now at the second box (“Senate votes on whether to launch impeachment trial”):

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Brazil: No immunity for Lula

Dilma had even named him her new chief of staff, so he wouldn’t be prosecuted. So much for that:
Brazil High Court Strips Ex-President Lula da Silva of Privileged Standing. Former leader’s corruption case is referred back to crusading judge Sergio Moro

The decision late Monday by Justice Teori Zavascki effectively strips Mr. da Silva of privileged legal protection reserved for high-ranking officials. The move increases the likelihood that Mr. da Silva, still Brazil’s most towering political figure, could be arrested in connection with a blockbuster corruption probe centered on state oil firm Petróleo Brasileiro SA or Petrobras.

Since judge Zavascki determined that Lula is no longer a sitting politician, he can be investigated by judge Moro’s court.

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