HomeNewsAnalysisBrazil's Rousseff Out, Elite Corruption Still In
ANALYSIS

Brazil's Rousseff Out, Elite Corruption Still In

BRAZIL / 1 SEP 2016 BY MICHAEL LOHMULLER EN

The ousting of President Dilma Rousseff from office does little to further Brazil's battle against high-powered corruption networks, suggesting instead she was the loser of a battle amongst the country's powerful elites.

On August 31, Brazil's Senate voted 61 to 20 in favor of removing President Dilma Rousseff from office, reported The Wall Street Journal. The vote followed an impeachment trial against Rousseff -- who was suspended from office in May -- on charges she manipulated the federal budget to conceal Brazil's economic problems.

Rousseff's ousting ends 13 years of rule by her Workers' Party (Partido do Trabalhadores – PT), which began under her predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in 2003.

In a separate vote, senators failed to reach the two-thirds majority necessary to ban Rousseff from holding office for eight years.

Michel Temer, who served as Rousseff's vice president and the interim president during her trial, was sworn in as president following the vote. He will serve out the remainder of Rousseff's term, which runs through 2018. Temer belongs to the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro – PMDB).

Rousseff's administration had come under increasing pressure from a number of ongoing corruption scandals and Brazil's worsening economic situation. According to The Wall Street Journal, Brazil posted 7.6 percent GDP growth in 2010, when Rousseff was first elected, but the economy is expected to contract by 3.2 percent this year after shrinking 3.8 percent in 2015.

The ongoing investigation into corruption at Brazilian oil firm Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras), known as "Operation Car Wash," also damaged Rousseff's popularity. Inquiries into the scandal, which center on bid rigging and kickback schemes on inflated state contracts, have implicated at least 50 Brazilian congressmen and a number of top Brazilian business executives.

SEE ALSO: InDepth: Elites and Organized Crime 

As head of Petrobras' board of directors when much of the corruption in question occurred, Rousseff came under intense scrutiny and suspicion. So far, however, no evidence has surfaced implicating her in any wrongdoing in connection with that scandal.

Rousseff called the impeachment proceedings against her a "parliamentary coup," and defended her actions, saying, "I did not commit the crimes that I am arbitrarily and unjustly accused of," the BBC reported. José Eduardo Cardozo, Rousseff's lawyer, claimed the charges were punishment for her support of the Petrobras investigation, reported The Guardian.

Moving forward, President Temer's government faces an uphill battle reversing Brazil's economic decline and healing the country's political divides following Rousseff's highly contentious and polarizing impeachment proceedings. Temer is unpopular, with approval ratings of around 12 percent, and has been caught up in a scandal of his own regarding illicit campaign finance.

InSight Crime Analysis

The paradox of Rousseff's removal from office is that it resulted from relatively minor charges, and is not directly tied to the massive Petrobras corruption scandal. Ironically, many of the senators who voted for her ouster have themselves been implicated in wrongdoing by the Operation Car Wash probes. This includes Fernando Collor de Mello, a current senator who served as Brazil's president from 1990 until 1992, when he resigned before facing impeachment proceedings on corruption charges. Brazilian police raided Collor's private residence in connection to the Petrobras scandal in July 2015.

SEE ALSO: Brazil News and Profiles 

Rather, it seems Rousseff has found herself a casualty of a battle being waged by Brazilian political and economic elites, particularly by members of the political opposition who have come under investigation. For instance, recordings surfaced in May of Romero Jucá, a leader of the PMDB party who Temer appointed to the cabinet of his interim administration, suggesting he was plotting to stymie the Petrobras investigation by pursuing Rousseff's impeachment.

Whatever the motives behind Rousseff's impeachment, her removal from office is unlikely to dramatically alter the status quo in Brazil and placate those fed up with high-level political corruption. Indeed, no evidence indicates Rousseff was the linchpin behind corruption at Petrobras, and her successor Temer has not been above suspicion in the case.

Nor do ordinary Brazilians seem to be under the delusion Rousseff's ouster represents the country turning a corner in eliminating government corruption. "I didn't vote for Dilma, but I have no reason to be happy today," The Wall Street Journal quoted a São Paulo web designer as saying following the Senate vote to remove Rousseff.

"Dilma leaves, Temer comes, nothing will change."  

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ELITES AND CRIME / 30 SEP 2022

Outgoing governor of Tamaulipas, Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca, is about to lose immunity from an arrest warrant.

COCAINE / 20 JUN 2023

The career of Guatemalan congresswoman Sofía Hernández is a survivor of three different political parties, connections to narcos, and US…

BRAZIL / 10 APR 2023

Authorities have once again destroyed vast amounts of marijuana in Amambay, Paraguay. Why does cultivation continue unimpeded?…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…