BRAZIL IMPEACHED ROUSSEFF, JAILED LULU

Apr 08, 2018 Editorial, Features / Columnists

On September 1, 2016, the Brazilian Senate stunned the world when it impeached the country’s first female President, Dilma Rousseff on corruption charges. The impeachment put an end to the 13-year-reign of the left-wing Workers’ Party in Brazil and brought to power, the centre-right Democratic Movement Party (PMDB). However, a defiant Rousseff claimed the process was flawed and illegal and vowed to appeal it.
Less than a year later, former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was convicted on one of five corruption and money laundering charges and was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison.
The conviction stunned Lula, Brazil’s charismatic leftist leader and the first working-class president who left office in 2010 with a dizzying 87-percent approval rating. Lula was trying to make a comeback this year, but the conviction has sullied his campaign. The conviction stemmed from a giant embezzlement and sprawling kickback scheme centered on the state-owned oil group Petrobras, known as the “Car Wash” scandal. It has tarnished Brazil’s ruling class.
In August 2017, Lula appealed his conviction to the Brazilian Supreme Court which on Thursday April 5, 2018 upheld the lower court’s ruling that former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva be jailed before he can further appeal his corruption conviction. The ruling effectively ended the 40-year career of one of the most influential politicians in modern Brazilian history.
Immediately after the Supreme Court’s ruling, Lula supporters in Brasilia, Sau Paulo and several other cities overran police barricades and surrounded the Supreme Court and occupied buildings around the country.
Yesterday, Lula persuaded his supporters to allow him to head to jail and there he is today, even as the appeal is pending.
Lulu, the iconic Brazilian President, rose from childhood poverty to rule Brazil from 2003-2010. During his tenure in office, the former union leader won national and global admiration for his transformative social policies that produced strong economic growth which helped to reduce inequality and poverty in the country.
The former president is the highest-ranking individual to be convicted of corruption in Brazil, which for over three years has thrown the country’s economic and political system into disarray. Lula is among the more than 1000 state senators and other political figures in over 40 Latin American countries to be caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar.
The decision by the Brazilian authorities to charge former president Lula for corruption should be replicated by our government to let all public officials and politicians know that corruption would not be tolerated and that no one, regardless of their status is above the law.
In Guyana, corruption is rampant at almost all levels of government. It is entrenched in our psyche and has become part of our culture. Corruption forced the previous administration out of office.
But unlike Brazil and other countries where high-ranking officials have been charged and convicted of corruption, no high ranking official in Guyana has been charged so far, despite the fact that hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on forensic audits and the creation of the State Asset Recovery Agency (SARA).
The recurring theme in Guyana is that where there are people, there will be corruption. But what is worse is that some are in denial and there is an unwillingness to punish those who are caught in the act because of party affiliation. Unless those in authority deal effectively with corruption, the country will not develop, crime will continue to escalate and the people, especially the poor will suffer.

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