And it just cost yet another minister his job in the government of Interim President Michel Temer, who assumed power after the 12 May Brazilian Senate vote to suspend President Dilma Rousseff pending the outcome of an impeachment trial in the senate.
Rousseff has maintained her ouster was nothing less than a legislative coup to block corruption investigations, and more and more evidence is emerging to back her claim.
Let’s open with this delectable morsel from the New York Times:
In an increasingly paranoid atmosphere in the capital, Brasília, members of the country’s political and business elite are secretly recording one another with the aim of reaching plea deals. Sergio Machado, a politician who was the chief executive of a Petrobras transportation unit for more than a decade, has turned over a trove of recordings to investigators.
In doing so, Mr. Machado, who has been accused of helping to orchestrate the Petrobras bribery scheme, is betraying various senior political figures whom he recorded. They include José Sarney, a former president; Renan Calheiros, the head of the Senate; and Mr. Jucá, the former planning minister, who remains a senator and the president of the P.M.D.B.
From the Guardian, the latest victim of Machado’s recorder:
The reputation of Brazil’s new interim government has slipped from fragile to farcical after a minister tasked with fighting corruption was forced to resign over a secretly recorded conversation implicating him in a cover-up.
Just 18 days after being installed as part of the new cabinet, Fabiano Silveira became the second minister to lose his post as a result of leaked tapes suggesting there is a coordinated, high-level campaign to quash the Lava Jato (car wash) investigation into a kickback scandal involving the state-run oil company Petrobras and dozens of politicians.
The resignation of Silveira — who held the portfolio of “transparency, monitoring and control” — increases the pressure on the administration of Michel Temer, which is struggling to shake off allegations that it seized control from suspended president Dilma Rousseff in order to stifle the biggest corruption probe in the country’s history.
And the dirt from teleSUR English:
In parts of the recordings, aired by TV Globo late Sunday, Silveira criticizes prosecutors in the probe focused on state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras, which has already implicated dozens of politicians and led to the imprisonment of top executives.
In the conversation, recorded at Calheiros’ home three months before Silveira became a Cabinet minister, Silveira advises the Senate leader on how best to defend himself from the probe into Petrobras.
The former head of the transportation arm of Petrobras, Sergio Machado, who is under investigation as part of the graft probe and has turned state’s witness, recorded the meeting and conversations with other politicians to obtain leniency from prosecutors. Silveira was a counsellor on the National Justice Counsel, a judicial watchdog agency, at the time of the meeting.
In the report, Globo TV also said some audio indicated that Silveira on several occasions spoke with prosecutors in charge of the Petrobras case to find out what information they might have on Calheiros, which he reported back to the Senate leader.
Well, at least it takes the minds of the Brazilian public off Zika for a moment.
eats shoots 'n leaves 