Brazil Senate presses on with impeachment, defying house speaker

[Zorro]

Source: Reuters

Brazil's Senate forged ahead with impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff on Monday, rejecting a surprise decision by the acting speaker of the lower house, who tried to annul a key vote just days before the president could be suspended from office.

The clash between Brazil's two most senior lawmakers threw markets into disarray and threatened to drag out a painful political crisis with a constitutional standoff that could end up at the Supreme Court.

Waldir Maranhao, a little known figure in Brazilian politics before taking over as house speaker only last week, argued that procedural flaws invalidated a lower house vote on April 17 approving the impeachment charges and the chamber would need to vote again.

The speaker's decision spooked investors betting that a more business-friendly government would take power imminently, weakening Brazil's currency over 4 percent in afternoon trading. However, markets quickly pared losses as investors bet the move would delay rather than prevent Rousseff's removal from office, given her weak support in Congress.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/acting-speaker-brazil-lower-house-annuls-rousseff-impeachment-152119720.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. There are some "DU'ers" here who would be too aroused by this story to even post it!

[center]







Having speaks with fellow right-wing dirtbag, Speaker Eduardo Cunha, who has just been removed.



Here goes nothing.





Dilma's right.



Renan Calheiros

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[Ichingcarpenter]

2. I think BRIC Partership formation is part of the equation

Last edited Tue May 10, 2016, 05:26 AM - Edit history (1)

Didn't Brazil just have a huge oil discovery?

WikiLeaks had already exposed how, way back in 2009, Big Oil was active in Brazil, trying to modify -- by all extortion means necessary -- a law proposed by former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, establishing profitable state-run Petrobras as the chief operator of all offshore blocks in the largest oil discovery of the young 21st century; the pre-salt deposits.

Lula not only kept Big Oil -- especially ExxonMobil and Chevron -- out of the picture but he also opened Brazilian oil exploration to China's Sinopec, as part of the Brazil-China (BRICS within BRICS) strategic partnership.

I think these facts might show who else is behind this show.


On edit I'm also reminded of the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état for some reason

Wikipedia

With increasing warning of the impending coup against the democratically-elected President João Goulart, US President Lyndon Baines Johnson, according to an audio tape, directed taking "every step that we can" to support the overthrow of Goulart, who followed an independent foreign policy: he had been opposed both to the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban actions in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The US ambassador, Lincoln Gordon, in consultations with the President, asked for covert preparation to assist the coup plotters, who installed a military dictatorship. [1] Gordon's cables "also confirm CIA covert measures "to help strengthen resistance forces" in Brazil. These included "covert support for pro-democracy street rallies…and encouragement [of] democratic and anti-communist sentiment in Congress, armed forces, friendly labor and student groups, church, and business." Four days before the coup, Gordon informed Washington that "we may be requesting modest supplementary funds for other covert action programs in the near future." He also requested that the U.S. send tankers carrying "POL"-petroleum, oil and lubricants-to facilitate the logistical operations of the military coup plotters, and deploy a naval task force to intimidate Goulart's backers and be in position to intervene militarily if fighting became protracted."


Intelligence collection[edit]

Prior to the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état coup, an information cable from the São Paulo CIA station [2] the coup would be launched within the week; the coup started the following night.


Overt and Covert Action[edit]

ITT owned the phone company of Brazil; Washington was afraid Goulart would nationalize it. ITT's president, Harold Geneen, was friends with the Director of Central Intelligence, John McCone. The CIA performed psyops against Goulart, performed character assassination, pumped money into opposition groups, and enlisted the help of the Agency for International Development and the AFL-CIO. The 1964 Brazilian coup d'état exiled Goulart and the military dictatorship of Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco took over. McCone went to work for ITT a few years later. The dictatorship lasted until 1985. [3]


A naval task force was sent but not needed, and the CIA covert action resources were not used.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Brazil