Corruption Imperils Brazil's Democracy

By Henry Srebrnik, [Saint John, NB] Telegraph-Journal

Brazilian political, cultural, and economic future will be shaped by the October 2018 presidential election.

But the nation, plagued by crime and corruption, is fertile ground for demagogues, due to the widespread distrust of politicians.

President Michel Temer of the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement took over after corruption charges drove former president Dilma Rousseff from office in August 2016.

He has been facing a stiff challenge in his bid for a four-year term from former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the left-wing Workers’ Party.

But da Silva may himself be barred from running because of his own corruption conviction. He was sentenced to more than nine years imprisonment last July and it was upheld by an appeals court in January. 

A 2010 law bars candidates whose convictions have been upheld by an appeals court from running for office for eight years.

Other major hopefuls are right-wing politician Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party, a former military officer who fulminates against corruption, crime and “moral decadence,” and environmentalist Marina Silva of the Sustainability Network, who combines an anti-corruption message with a centrist economic platform.

Officials from the judiciary and law enforcement are teaming up to try to prevent voters from being “misled,” arguing that freedom of speech cannot come at the cost of a tainted election.

They argue that the right to free speech cannot come at the expense of an illegitimate outcome. 

Judicial and law enforcement officials have called on Congress to pass a law establishing clear rules and penalties for “fake news.”

Maybe they’re just afraid Brazilians are less enamoured of democracy these days, given the stories of violence and corruption that fill the media. 

Brazil’s political scandal, known as Lava Jato (“Car Wash”), now in its fifth year, has reached an astonishing scale. Politicians, bankers, businessmen and judges conspired to steal vast sums from the state, regardless of who was in office. 

No fewer than 20 different political parties have had members implicated. More than 200 people have reportedly been charged with crimes, including two former Brazilian presidents, the heads of both houses of Brazil’s Congress, more than 90 lawmakers and one third of Temer’s cabinet. 

The value of bribes paid as part of this scandal is estimated at about $2 billion. Temer himself narrowly avoided being prosecuted on corruption charges. And he is running again, some suggest, to retain immunity from a criminal indictment. 

Meanwhile, crime has become so pervasive in Rio de Janeiro that the military has taken over security in the city until December.

Rather than view the move as an invasion, many violence-weary residents of the favelas, or shantytowns, welcomed it. 

There were 6,731 violent deaths in Rio de Janeiro State in 2017, a 7.5 per cent increase from the previous year. At least 120 police officers were killed, including many in confrontations with drug traffickers.

In 2016, the country registered a record rate of 29.9 homicides for every 100,000 people,  nearly six times that of the United States.

This has even led to some nostalgia for the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985. Some Brazilians see them as champions of public order.

An estimated 43 per cent of the population supports a temporary revival of military control, according to a Sept. 9, 2017 poll by the Instituto Parana Pesquisas. The figure is especially high among young people. It’s come to this.