Politics
Brazil’s Planning Minister Romero Juca, who is a close aide of acting President Michel Temer, has been forced to step aside after a tape surfaced in which he was allegedly conspiring to overthrow ex-President Dilma Rousseff in the bid to quash a corruption investigation at oil giant Petrobras.
Juca, who claimed that his comments were taken out of context, announced that he will “go on leave.”
Rousseff, who has been suspended from office, said that the tapes prove that she was a victim of a “political coup” orchestrated to secure senior politicians involved in the Petrobras scandal, writes the BBC.
Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper on Monday published the audio transcript of a taped conversation between Juca and Sérgio Machado, a former senator, who headed another state oil company, Transpetro, until recently. Juca is heard saying that Rousseff’s impeachment was the only resort to “stop a sweeping corruption investigation,” notes The Guardian.
The latest development has tarnished the image of Brazil’s interim government. And Temer could face more embarrassment in coming days when seven members of his center-right cabinet face allegations of corruption in the Petrobras scandal and Lava Jato (Car Wash) scam.
