Briefings & Intelligence

23-07-2015: Latin American Weekly Report

  • LatinNews

Rock-bottom approval ratings, an economy in recession and an increasingly hostile congress are not on their own sufficient to initiate impeachment proceedings against Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff. However, they make the conditions for such a process more likely. In another bad week for Rousseff, her mentor and predecessor, Lula da Silva (2003-2011), faced a criminal investigation; an opinion poll found just 7.7% of Brazilians approved of her administration; the government was forced to revise down its fiscal surplus target (with the economy now predicted to shrink by 1.49% this year), and the speaker of the federal lower chamber of congress, Eduardo Cunha, declared his open opposition to the executive.

Last week, Brazil’s federal district public prosecutor announced the launch of a criminal investigation into allegations of influence-peddling, a crime punishable with up to five years’ prison time, against Lula. The charges relate to the period after Lula left office, from 2011 to 2014, when he travelled to various African and Latin American countries at the expense of Odebrecht, the construction giant, in order to promote the company’s expertise. Lula is also suspected of pressuring the state development bank (Bndes), to loan money to Odebrecht to finance these foreign infrastructure projects.

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