A Quick Guide to How Brazil's New Political Crisis May Play Out
Ian Bremmer Says Impeachment Likely Soon in Brazil
Brazil plunged back into crisis when the Supreme Court authorized an investigation into President Michel Temer on accusations of passive corruption and obstruction of justice. The allegations are the latest development in Operation Carwash, a sprawling corruption probe that has implicated many of the country’s business and political elite and helped bring down Temer’s predecessor, Dilma Rousseff. Temer has repeatedly denied the allegations, but several opposition legislators have called for impeachment, as has Brazil’s influential bar association, the OAB.
As part of a plea-bargain testimony, brothers Wesley and Joesley Batista, senior executives of JBS, the world’s largest meat packer, submitted a secret recording of Temer to the Supreme Court. Joesley was already under investigation by police when Temer agreed to meet him late in the evening of March 7 this year, a meeting that the executive recorded with a hidden device. Prosecutors allege the tape shows the president approving a cover-up and turning a blind eye to corruption by endorsing the payment of hush money to Eduardo Cunha, the imprisoned former house speaker, and offering Batista the services of a presidential aide to help resolve his legal issues. The aide was subsequently filmed receiving a suitcase from the Batistas filled with 500,000 reais ($152,000) in traced bills.