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In the first exclusive interview following her impeachment, former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said that her unelected successor, installed President Michel Temer, has “confessed to the coup” against her. Rousseff was referring to controversial public remarks delivered by Temer last week in which he explicitly stated that the impeachment process was initiated due to Rousseff’s refusal to accept his party’s neoliberal economic plan, rather than the alleged budgetary manipulations that served as the stated justification for impeachment. Temer’s remarks were first reported by The Intercept Brasil last Thursday.
Watch Rousseff’s statement:
Also, there were those with their own plans who wanted something else: “We will implement a political program that was not approved by the ballot box, a different political plan.” And this is being confessed, there’s something curious about this coup, they confess the coup. Two days later. They’re confessing. Last confession came from the illegitimate and usurper president, currently in office, who said the following: “We came up with the impeachment to implement the program ‘Bridge to the Future.’” Well, the program “Bridge to the Future,” that takes away labor rights, takes away social rights, privatizes, and sells lands to foreigners, this program was not approved by the ballot box. So, this is another reason behind the coup.
The interview, broadcast on Tuesday evening, was conducted by the veteran journalist Bob Fernandes for the public television station TVE Bahia.
The frankness of Temer’s statement, delivered to an audience of U.S. financiers and foreign policy elites at the Americas Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA) in New York City, stunned many people, although virtually none of the large Brazilian media — which united in support of impeachment — has yet reported the remarks. The economic proposal, which outlines a series of neoliberal reforms such as privatization of state assets and cuts to social programs, was introduced in 2015, when Temer’s party, the PMDB, worked in a coalition with Rousseff’s Workers’ Party (PT).
Watch Temer’s statement here:
During the same event in New York, these measures were described in greater detail by the new finance minister, Henrique Meirelles. The audience was comprised of AS/COA members and guests from collaborating organizations: the American Chamber of Commerce for Brazil and Brazil Investments and Business, known as BRAiN.
At the end of the presentation, the audience had the opportunity to ask only two questions to the finance minister, both illustrating well the concerns presented by Rousseff in her interview with TVE. An automobile industry representative asked when foreigners “will be allowed to acquire land in Brazil,” and a unnamed attendee asked about “plans that the government has to manage the potential social unrest of these measures that will affect the pockets of every Brazilian.”
The unexpected declaration by Temer was reported by several independent media outlets but was completely ignored by all the traditional media, with the exception of Exame and Carta Capital magazines and the left-leaning Jornal do Brasil newspaper. One person who seems excited about the neoliberal agenda of Brazil’s newly installed government is U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who, in Brasília yesterday, expressed great optimism about the economic path on which the country is now being placed.
Move on – she did wrong, she was impreached and the economy and confidence is higher now she is gone. There was no coup – the full democratic processes and procedures as mandated by the Constitution were followed. There were political manouevres, sure, no more than happens in mature democracies. Given that that same Constitution doesn’t provide for a change of President via a vote of no confidence, then impeachment is the only avenue.
I couldn’t agree more. But I guess PT is serving some real good Kool-Aid these days and this Inacio guy can’t get enough of it :)
Great article!
It’s important to get Central and South American political matters out to those countries’ citizens and important also to get them out to us in North America. We are the problem to a very great extent and we are not about to ever discover that from our mainstream media.
Fortunately Dilma Rousseff and PT were in the past. I hope they never go back to the power again. Who wants another Venezuela in South America?
She lied to win the last election, as a result nothing that she promised during her campaign was accomplished. People lost their jobs, dignity and Brazil went through an economic crisis like in 1929.
She left. And late.
Are you seriously ok with a coup ?
the path for the future looks very clear IMO, the main objective seems to be based on foreign capital which might reassemble the colonial times.
And before saying the whole communist falacy, please evaluate the situation the country was before, you will see some development that came to conclusion in PT mandate.
By far i´m not protecting the party or the person, i do believe that corruption should be punished, but i also remember that the investigation came to be during their time in power. And most important, the government is composed of a unreasonable number of politicians with varying degrees of power in a very complicated net of power that facilitate the lobby investigated in the car wash.
As for the election, you could draw a parallel with brexit. it was either the possibly bad unknow or the ot so good way things were. In which they chose to keep the government.
PS: i beg to you study more about the 1929 crisis before comparing it. or at least enlight me.
Why do you think the impeachment was a coup? Dilma illegally manipulated government accounts to lie about the situation in Brazil being perfect to have a chance at the elections when in reality the country was on the brink of a financial crisis. I’m not sure why it’s not clear to everyone that this is not fine.
Indeed it´s not fine to manipulate the books as she did.
Altough, the reason behind the whole process was, as temer said ” a political program”, so i conclude that the ideia was to change the rule over the country rather than to investigate the president.
And yes, the changes are real and disturbing if you look close to it.
I agree with Ziani here. While Luciane may be correct in stating that Dilma stayed in power too long, the truth is that the people elected her and that is what democracy is supposed to be about; the people’s choice. With the coup it sends a clear message to the people that their voice doesn’t matter. And let’s be honest here if Dilma was as awful as the media painted her to be then she would still be in power. The people that were responsible for her coup are about saturating the Brazilian market with foreign interests while at the same time creating a wealthy elite that is protected from recessions and emerging entrepreneurs. They don’t want people to be equal to them so a society with egalitarian programs is a threat to the idea of them being better than everyone else.
However, if Dilma and her administration is guilty of corruption then isn’t Temar and the new administration guilty of corruption with trumped up charges for the impeachment?
Lastly, the Brazilian economy is broken and will be whether Dilma is in office or not because it is a society that does not want to deal with the issues that is plaguing it; the racial issues, economic disparities based upon race, class and wealth, and an insane infatuation with creating a tourist nation rather than a nation balanced with tourist and domestic dollars. And until Brazilian natives demand a system that provides equality across the board then the economy and culture is bound to be in a bind, with Dilma, Temar and any other administration – liberal or conservative.
Daily we hear important impeachment players revealing their oppinions against the coup. Today the former president of Supreme Court Ricardo Lewandowski has stated : “The impeachment process has broken the brazilian democracy” After this important speech, we ask: Who will bring Dilma back ?
The wealth pool of predators upon the earth wants their victims to know that as long as it is legal to rob people of pretty much everything, they will continue to do so but now, more admittedly.
Rousseff is 3% less “neoliberal” than the “new and improved” rulers. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Fortunately, Dilma is in the past with her socialist mentality from the stone age.
In my strong opinion, you’ve delegitimized your every utterance here by having explicitly renounced democracy.
I’m a rebel.
If it wasn’t for the Intercept; just watching our American shit eating media, I would have thought Rousseff was the villain here.
Oh my sweet summer child,
She is a villain, not in the impeachment story. But in an political vision, there are no good politicians.
But there is always someone worst than her around.
The banksters want their rape of South America,interrupted by Kirchner,Rousseff,Morales,Chavez and others ,to continue unabated,and our serial lying media,who are of course the main stockholders of said,do too.
The complete abdication of responsible reportage on this coup is just another shameful episode in the capitulation of our pols and poohbahs to greed and evil.
Line them all up and give them what for,one can dream.
i agree with your assessment, there’s a book “going dark” by guy mcpherson, in it the author states that the rich are killing the planet. the rich are gathering up the $$$ but they cant eat it.
The ultra rich are planning on leaving the planet on their space clan ships in about a 100 to 200 years time (along with their attendant computer techs), once the Earth’s resources and habitability have been irredeemably exhausted.