This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, May 11, 2016:
Lula, the one who started Brazil’s present decline
Even before the upper branch of the Brazilian government – the Federal Senate – votes to impeach the country’s President, Dilma Rousseff, she has promised she will appeal her conviction to the country’s Supreme Court, which is populated with her own hand-picked cronies.
The corruption is so vast and runs so deep that the average Brazilian, suffering under economic conditions that stretch the imagination, has no way out. Merely changing the diaper with another dirty one isn’t going to make a difference.
An example of that corruption surfaced on Monday when the interim speaker of the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, annulled the vote taken last month to impeach Rousseff, and then, on Tuesday morning, reversed himself. All without explanation.
This allows the charade to continue in Brasilia, Brazil’s capitol city. The Senate plans to vote later on this week to impeach Rousseff, which will then begin a six-month-long trial. And she has already promised to appeal her conviction, saying “we will appeal with every legal method available” which includes appealing to the highest court in the land. She and her predecessor have planned for this day by packing that court with politicians friendly not only to former President Lula and his protégé Rousseff, but also to the ideology of the Workers’ Party, which has long been closely associated with the Brazilian Communist Party.
During her trial, her office will be filled with another corruptocrat, Michel Temer, who is also so deeply involved in scandal that almost all Brazilians think he ought to be impeached along with Rousseff and for the same reasons.
Operation Car Wash has already jailed dozens of politicians and corrupt businessmen seeking to carve out large pieces of the contracts the state-owned oil company Petrobras was letting to develop two newly-discovered oil fields. Investigations are continuing into the corruption, including at least half of those Deputies themselves. The speaker of the house is also being investigated, which explains why he brought impeachment proceedings against Rousseff: to take the limelight off of his own corruption and focus it instead on hers.
For a while there it looked like Brazil might challenge the developed nations as it rode the commodity boom. Its abundant natural resources such as oil and iron ore allowed Brazil to produce steel, aircraft, motor vehicles, auto parts, and other related equipment and machinery. It was the “B” in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China), the group predicted to out-produce the developed nations no later than 2025.
Enter Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – known as “Lula” – who was elected president in 2003. Taking advantage, he installed a welfare state that was touted by the international media as proof that a socialist economy could prosper. By the time he left office, however, the lie was exposed, leaving the now failing socialist experiment in the hands of his protégé, an equally squalid and corrupt socialist with ties to the Communist Party who successfully hid her own violent terrorist background.
It didn’t take long for the country that was enjoying GDP growth of 10 percent a year to reverse course. It is now shrinking at more than four percent a year.
Brazil’s present predicament was perfectly summarized by Mihir Kapadia, the head of Sun Global Investments, a London investment firm that specializes in emerging-market opportunities:
[The] situation [in Brazil] has been made worse by high debt levels … [and] problems of governance, corruption, and political issues [that] have created a perfect storm.
Most storms abate over time. But in Brazil the perfect storm is likely to continue: Rousseff’s trial will take months, her appeal will take years, and in the meantime ordinary Brazilians will continue to suffer under double-digit unemployment, double-digit inflation, and a standard of living that has already been reduced by half, with no relief in sight.
Sources:
The Telegraph: Chaos in Brazil as Dilma Rousseff impeachment vote ‘annulled’
The New American: Amid Impeachment, Marxist Brazilian President Cries “Coup” at UN
The New American: Brazil’s Lower House Votes to Impeach President Rousseff; Little Likely to Change
The New American: It Looks Like the End Is Near for Brazil’s President Rousseff
The New American: Brazil’s Economy Entering Depression
The Wall Street Journal: Brazil Lower House President Reverses Decision to Annul Rousseff Impeachment
Incomplete bio of Michel Temer
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