Rousseff Ousted from Brazilian Presidency, Temer Takes Over (Updated)

By a 61-20 vote, the Brazilian Senate voted Wednesday afternoon to oust Dilma Rousseff as the country's president over charges of illegally manipulating government accounts.

Rousseff, who has been suspended since May as part of the impeachment process, also awaits a separate vote by the Senate to further suspend her from public office.

Update (1:15 pm): The Senate was unable to obtain the two-thirds approval needed to suspend Rousseff from public office for eight years. 

She had intervened on the Senate floor during a marathon session on Monday and compared the treatment of her detractors to the torture she underwent during the military regime of the 1970s. She also implied that former running mate turned adversary and then-acting leader Michel Temer was an "usurper" plotting with her opponents to enact a "coup" against her.

Update (2:20 pm): President Rafael Correa tweeted his ire over the removal of Rousseff and announced the recall of his country's ambassador to Brazil. 

Ecuador thus becomes the second Latin American state to recall their ambassador to Brazil after Bolivian Evo Morales tweeted he would do the same.  

Update (3:45 pm): And Venezuela makes three.

[More updates below the page break]

Daily Headlines: August 30, 2016

* Brazil: A defiant suspended President Dilma Rousseff defended herself during a marathon session of Brazil’s Senate but it may not be enough to prevent her from being ousted as soon as later today.

* Puerto Rico: Monica Puig made made history this month by earning Puerto Rico’s first ever gold medal but the tennis star was shockingly eliminated in the first round of the U.S. Open.

* United States: A federal appeals court upheld an order denying asylum to twenty-eight immigrant mothers and their children who claimed they would face danger if deported to their Latin American countries of origin.

* Mexico: Federal police chief Enrique Galindo was fired from his post over denunciations against officers accused of the extrajudicial killings of twenty-two suspected drug gang members last year.

YouTube Source – euronews (“Brazil's suspended President Dilma Rousseff has accused her critics of using trumped charges against her to trample on the country's democracy.”)

Online Sources – Daily Telegraph, ABC News, Reuters, USA TODAY

Daily Headlines: August 17, 2016

* Bolivia: Landlocked Bolivia took a big step towards being the world’s largest exporter of lithium following its first shipment of the metal to China.

* Brazil: Suspended President Dilma Rousseff proposed early elections though that may not be enough to prevent her from possibly being removed from office by the Brazilian Senate later this month.

* Puerto Rico: At least 500 passengers were evacuated from a ferry that caught fire off the Puerto Rican coast this morning.

* Nicaragua: Opposition parties have called for a boycott of Nicaragua’s upcoming presidential elections that critics claim are rigged to create a “dynastic dictatorship” for current leader Daniel Ortega.

* Mexico: Is the kidnapping of six people including the son of imprisoned capo Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman a sign of increased violence between Mexican drug gangs?

Daily Headlines: August 10, 2016

* Brazil: Amid the fervor of the Rio Games, Brazil’s Senate voted in favor of holding an impeachment trial against suspended President Dilma Rousseff.

* Puerto Rico: Tourism in Puerto Rico has weakened over the past few months reportedly as a result of the Zika virus outbreak that has affected most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

* Chile: President Michelle Bachelet in a televised address proposed reforming the private pension system created under the rule of former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

* Venezuela: Opposition politicos are none too pleased with the Venezuelan electoral commission’s decision to likely hold a possible recall referendum against President Nicolas Maduro in 2017 instead of later this year.

YouTube Source – AFP

Online Sources – euronews, Travel Weekly, Deutsche Welle, Yahoo News

Rio Games Crowd Shouts ”Fora Temer” (Updated)

“For better or worse, politics and the Olympics are intertwined,” was an argument we made back in 2008 during a discussion on the Tlateloco massacre prior to the 1968 Mexico City Games. That certainly has not changed at the Summer Olympics that is will be officially inaugurated tonight in Rio de Janeiro.

Acting Brazilian President Michel Temer became the first leader, acting or otherwise to skip the opening ceremonies of an Olympics since U.S. President jimmy Carter at the 1980 Winter Games. His name was not announced as tradition for the host country’s leader during the public introduction of the International Olympic Committee chief. Yet his absence did not go unnoticed by some of the thousands of spectators at the Maracana Stadium.



Update: Temer did appear at the ceremonies to officially open the Rio Games, whereupon he was soundly booed by the spectators.

“Shouts of ‘Fora Temer’ (‘Temer Out’) were heard coming from the crowd from the left of the grandstand,” reported O Globo on its website.

“Then part of the audience booed,” as if to drown out the chanters yet that led to stronger calls of “Fora Temer,” according to O Globo. The jeering would die down as the ceremonies continued with numerous performances and the parade of athletes participating at the Olympics.

Had he appeared and spoken at the opening ceremonies, organizers would have allegedly “raise the volume of the music or play sound effects” in order to cover up any booing or jeering against him.

Temer last month claimed the Rio Games would serve as “a time of international unity and national reconciliation” though that hasn’t been the case in the early goings of the event.

Several thousand protesters marched in Rio hours prior to the opening ceremonies with anti-Temer banners and chants. This rally, as seen in the video at the top of this post, caused a detour in the planned route of the Olympic torch parade.

Brazilian Artists Prevent Culture Ministry Shutdown

Marcelo Calero was sworn on Tuesday as Brazil’s new Culture Minister under Acting President Michel Temer though that was not under the new leader’s original plans. Temer originally opted to merge the Ministry of Culture (MC) into the Education Ministry but days ago reinstated the department following campaigning by the local artistic community.

The main thrust came from the “Ocupa MinC” movement that mobilized to voice their discontent against Temer’s actions. Hundreds of artists, musicians, actors and others protested by taking over MC buildings in twenty-three cities throughout Brazil. In the Teatro Oficina in Sao Paulo, for instance, demonstrators at their sit-in chanted the popular song “Baile de Favela” as a form of resistance. Renowned música popular brasileira singers Caetano Veloso and Erasmo Carlos performed in concert last week at the MC headquarters for Rio de Janeiro.

“MinC is ours (and) is a victory of the Brazilian state.  It does not represent any government,” said Veloso who left Brazil under exile during the repressive military rule of the 1970s.

“Any person who thinks culture is superfluous is someone out of touch with the identity of our nation,” declared Carlos in an apparent message for Temer.

Other artists aligned to Ocupa MinC are not only upset at Temer but also outraged over the process that led to impeachment proceedings against his predecessor, Dilma Rousseff. In a video purportedly produced by Ocupa MinC and embedded at the top of this post, at least eleven figures criticize the “illegitimate government” under Temer for removing eight other ministries including those representing women, indigenous communities and human rights.

“The fight for democracy does not have a deadline,” actress Marieta Severo mentioned at the end of the video.

Petrobras Hit with $358 Million Quarterly Loss

As he begins his first day as Brazilian acting president, Michel Temer, will have to face numerous political and economic challenges in the 180 days when he replaces suspended leader President Dilma Rousseff. Recession, growing unemployment, rising inflation are some of the obstacles in front of him though one more can be added today.

The state-run oil giant posted a $358 million net loss in the first three months of 2016, which comes one year after it earned some $1.5 billion in quarterly profits. Analysts surveyed by Reuters anticipated over $1 billion in earnings during the first trimester this year but ultimately the company sunk to a third consecutive quarter in the red. 

Petrobras also reported in its securities filing that net revenue dropped by 5.4% to nearly $20.2 billion, while the EBITDA margin that helps measure operating profit, dipped 2% to around $6 billion.

Much like other oil firms around the world, Petrobras has been hurt by the low prices of crude in recent months. But the company has also been hit by decreased oil and natural gas production purportedly stemming from increased maintenance at promising offshore sites. The refinery division that had helped Petrobras gain profits over a year ago has stagnated amid declining demand.

On the political side of the equation, Petrobras is the key business entity in the middle of the “Lava Jato” corruption scandal where an estimated $5.3 billion in bribes and kickbacks exchanged hands. Though the impeachment charges against Rousseff are not linked to “Lava Jato”, many figures of Brazil’s political elite have been implicated including ally-turned-adversary Temer:

Daily Headlines: May 12, 2016

* Brazil: In a pair of speeches to the press and followers this morning in Brasilia, a suspended president Dilma Rousseff proclaimed her innocence amid the impeachment process against her and accused political rivals of plotting an illegal “coup”.

* Panama: The Panamanian government has tried to repair the country’s image in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal but fell short by being excluded from an anti-corruption summit hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

* Mexico: A new report claimed that natural disasters and increased violence has led to the internal displacement of some 100,000 people in Mexico last year.

* Haiti: Plans to donate 500 metric tons of peanuts from the U.S. to malnourished Haitian children has backfired and led to an avalanche of criticism from farmers and NGOs.

YouTube Source – CNN (“Brazil's embattled president says there is no reason for her impeachment because she has committed no crime.”)

Online Sources – BBC News, GlobalPost, Bloomberg, Washington Post, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: May 11, 2016

* Brazil: The Brazilian Senate later today will likely approve holding an impeachment trial against embattled President Dilma Rousseff where she would be suspended from her post for 180 days.

* Colombia: President Juan Manuel Santos claimed that a peace deal with FARC rebels can be reached “in the very near future” hours after his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, called for a “civil resistance” against such an agreement. 

* Nicaragua: A new study blasted planned construction of an interoceanic canal though Nicaragua, which would be disastrous for a number of endangered wildlife species.

* Peru: Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of imprisoned ex-president Alberto Fujimori, continues to post a slight lead in the polls ahead of next month’s runoff.

* U.S.: At least 875,000 eligible Latino voters could face difficulties voting in the upcoming presidential election according to an analysis by National Association of Elected and Appointed Officials.

* El Salvador: The murder rate for El Salvador in the first four months of this year has reportedly surpassed the rates in other Central American countries for 2015.

YouTube Source – AFP
 
Online Sources – Fox News Latino, Colombia Reports, CNN, Reuters, The Tico Times, NBC News

Everybody Hates Michel

As shown in the above video, Brazilians reacting to the lower chamber vote in April to continue the impeachment process against President Dilma Rousseff were either jubilant or heartbroken. Yet despite this sharp division, polls last month showed that those for and against the process are united in at least one aspect: disgust against Vice President Michel Temer.

According to a mid-April poll of street protesters in Sao Paulo both for and against Rousseff’s impeachment, 79% of her supporters would like to see Temer out of office. 88% of these demonstrators gathered in the downtown Vale do Anhangabaú area also feel either neutral or pessimistic towards a Temer regime. Among Rousseff detractors on the Avenida Paulista, meanwhile, only 32% favorably viewed an administration led by the potential successor to Rousseff. Compared to anti-impeachment activists, a slimmer majority (54%) would favor the ouster of the former ally to Rousseff.

Another survey published last week, meanwhile, noted that 62% of Brazilians want Rousseff and Temer to resign from their respective posts though that option is unconstitutional. One out of four respondents to the Ibope poll favored Rousseff to stay in power on the remote possibility that she can form a coalition with the opposition eager to see her gone. Even then it’s a bit over triple the support compared to the 8% who feel that a Temer presidency would resolve the country’s deep political mess. 

The negativity towards a Temer regime even extends itself to a hypothetical race for the presidency in 2018.  Respondents to a Datafolha poll conducted from April 7-8 were “deeply divided” on backing Rousseff’s predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, though he received a plurality of support. Temer was only able to muster a microscopic 1-2% in favor of him winning in two years time.

Daily Headlines: April 18, 2016

* Latin America: Ecuadoran officials claimed the death toll from a 7.8-magniude earthquake on Saturday night that was the country’s worst tremor since 1979 rose to 350 fatalities.

* Brazil: Financial markets in Brazil opened today with gains after the House of Deputies easily approved sending the impeachment process against President Dilma Rousseff to the Senate.

* Chile: Some 4 million people Santiago is without drinking water and parts of in central Chile are flooded following periods of “unusually” heavy rainfall.

* Venezuela: Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro announced that clocks would be turned ahead by 30 minutes to help ease the country's energy crisis.

YouTube Source – euronews
 
Online Sources – CNBC, Reuters, NBC News, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: April 15, 2016

* Panama: Panamanian authorities reportedly agreed to follow international tax reporting standards outlined by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development chief Angel Gurria even though they had blasted him for comments made following the Panama Papers leak.

* Brazil: The lower chamber of the Brazilian Congress began three days of debating today over whether President Dilma Rousseff should be impeached over money laundering allegations.

* U.S.: The crisis hitting newspapers in the U.S. might lead to the end of El Diario/La Prensa, the longest-running Spanish-language daily and in circulation for 102 years.

* Puerto Rico: The Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to the surviving Puerto Rican soldiers of a U.S. Army regiment known as the “Borinqueneers” who fought both World Wars and the Korean War.

YouTube Source – BBC News (Video uploaded on April 3, 2016).

Online Sources – Deutsche Welle, the Latin Americanist, USA TODAY, Fox News Latino, CNN

Brazil’s Rousseff Assails “Treacherous” Vice President

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” says an old adage. In the case of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, however, former allies have turned into adversaries that are a little to close to her as she faces an impeachment process that could see her deposed from the country’s top political office.

“We are living in strange and worrying times, times of a coup and pretending and treachery…(On Monday) they used the pretense of a leak to give the order for the conspiracy,” declared Rousseff in reference to legislative leader Eduardo Cunha but also Vice President Michel Temer. She accused both men of organizing a coup to “destabilize a legitimately elected president.”

Rousseff did not directly name Temer, but her comments came following a recording purportedly leaked accidently where the person who would succeed her should she get ousted. On the tape he gives what would be his welcoming speech to Brazilians if he were to become president. Though he claimed that the message was only to be heard by advisors and doesn’t wish to “generate false expectations,” Rousseff was certainly not to pleased with the development.

“Like many Brazilians, it came to my knowledge and I confess I was shocked with the shamelessness of the farce of the ‘leak’…trying to disguise the announcement of a premature inauguration, underestimating the intelligence of Brazilians,” an irate Rousseff mentioned.

Both Temer and Cunha belong to the PMDB political party that recently dropped out of the ruling coalition led by Rousseff. They have also been implicated in the corruption scandals that have shaken Brazil’s political elite and could sink the Rousseff regime. (In fact, a Supreme Court judge on April 5th ordered impeachment proceedings to start against Temer).

Daily Headlines: April 12, 2016

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan Supreme Court overturned a law approved weeks ago by the opposition-controlled legislature that would’ve granted amnesty to political prisoners including anti-government activists.

* Peru: Keiko Fujimori may have won in the first round of Peru’s presidential election but will surely face a very stiff challenge from runoff rival Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and voters wary over the controversial legacy of imprisoned ex-leader Alberto Fujimori.

* Honduras: “We demand the investigation and trial of those responsible for the deaths of those journalists,” said a protester at a demonstration in Tegucigalpa to call attention to the twenty-two members of the press killed since 2014.

* Brazil: The impeachment process against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff continues after a Congressional committee recommended the process head to a vote by the lower chamber.

YouTube Source – France 24 English (Last month “Venezuela's opposition-led legislature approved an amnesty bill for political prisoners, setting up an epic political clash with embattled President Nicolas Maduro, who opposes the move.)

Online Sources – NBC News, Fusion, The Latin Americanist, Fox News Latino, BBC News

Daily Headlines: April 7, 2016

* Haiti: Political obstacles continue to plague Haiti’s presidential election, which has been postponed multiple times since last December.

* Brazil: The wheels continue turning in the impeachment process against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff though her potential successor, Michel Temer, might also face impeachment.

* Guatemala: Fourteen suspects were arrested and accused of forcing farmers at gunpoint to sell their land at undervalued rates.

* Venezuela: The head of Spain’s emerging Podemos political party rejected allegations that the group received millions of dollars from the Venezuelan government.

YouTube Source – AFP (Video uploaded on January 23, 2016).

Online Sources – ABC News, Fox News Latino, Reuters, BBC News, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: April 5, 2016

* Brazil: Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff declared that none of her cabinet would be reshuffled prior to an upcoming impeachment vote that she has referred to as a “coup.”

* U.S.: Care to guess which U.S. presidential hopeful proposed preventing all remittances to Mexico in exchange for paying for the boondoggle that is a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border?

* Cuba: According to the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, 1416 arbitrary arrests took place last month in Cuba with roughly one-third of them occurring during U.S. President Barack Obama’s historic trip to the island.

* Puerto Rico: The Puerto Rican Senate approved a “sweeping” moratorium that would allow the government to prevent making payments on the island’s massive debt until January 2017.

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources – Reuters, Fox News Latino, BBC News, Bloomberg

Ex-Minister Marina Silva Leads Poll for Brazilian President

It may be presumptuous to discuss the 2018 Brazilian presidential race amidst the current political crisis shaking up the South American state. But the growing distrust by Brazilians against their leaders seems to be reflected in the results of a recent poll.

According to a Datafolha survey conducted from March 17 to 18, a plurality of respondents opted for Marina Silva, a former senator and presidential candidate. Silva, who ran as an outsider for the Socialist Party (PSB) in 2014, received 21% backing in the poll if she were to run as an independent. Accounting for the margin of error, she would be in a statistical dead heat with 2014 presidential election runner up Aécio Neves and embattled ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Yet her support climbs to 24% if she were to run as representative of the conservative opposition PDSB, while backing of Lula has plummeted in light of his suspected role in the “Lava Jato” corruption scandal.  

Silva was allied to the ruling Workers Party and served as an environmental minister under Lula from 2003 to 2008. The long-time environmental activist resigned, however, amid disgust over his lack of strong conservation policies. She unsuccessfully ran for president twice including four years ago when she was succeeded Eduardo Campos after he died in a plane crash. She became among the favorites in the polls to make it to the runoff and was backed mainly by social conservatives, middle class Brazilians upset at the government led by Dilma Rousseff, and young voters people turned off by the traditional political establishment. Battling against the existing political machinery along with doubts among some in the PSB seemed to have worked against her, however, and she was trounced in the first round by Neves and eventual victor Rousseff.

Daily Headlines: March 25, 2016

* Brazil: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff once again claimed she would not resign despite an impeachment process against her and a deepening political crisis stemming from the “Lava Jato” corruption probe.

* Vatican: Pope Francis is the world’s most popular leader according to a new survey, while the Argentine-born pontiff washed the feet of twelve refugees as par of a traditional Holy Thursday gesture.

* U.S.: Why is the spike in HIV and AIDS cases in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas “a warning sign for the U.S. healthcare community as well as Latino neighborhoods across” the nation?

* Latin America: Researchers believe the Zika virus that has spread across the Americas arrived in South America sometime in 2013 and not during sporting events held in Brazil two years ago such as the World Cup.

YouTube Source – Ruptly TV (“Anti-government protesters demonstrated through Sao Paulo, (on March 20th), as Brazil’s lower house continues to discuss Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's potential impeachment”.)
 
Online Sources – Xinhua, Catholic Herald, The Huffington Post, BBC News, Latina

Daily Headlines: February 22, 2016

* Bolivia: President Evo Morales said that he would respect the results of a constitutional referendum where most voters reportedly rejected allowing him to run for an unprecedented fourth presidential term.

* Brazil: In the latest chapter of the “Lava Jato” bribery affair Brazilian police ordered the arrest of Joao Santana, a “political marketing expert” who helped the last three presidents win their respective elections.

* Panama: Panamanian immigration officials will allegedly grant travel permits to 145 Cuban migrants seeking to travel northbound to the U.S.

* Latin America: The Copa America Centenario group draw was held amid the “FIFA-gate” corruption scandal involving former regional and national soccer confederation figures from the Americas.

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources – ESPN FC, Fox News Latino, The New York Times, Yahoo News

Daily Headlines: December 18, 2015

* Cuba: A new poll found that most Cuban-Americans back the push to normalize ties between the U.S. and Cuba, and believe the decades-long embargo against the island should be eliminated.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan government blasted U.S. prosecutors for charging National Guard leader Nestor Reverol with drug trafficking and criticized French Prime Minister Manuel Valls for congratulating the opposition’s victory in legislative elections. 

* Brazil: The impeachment process against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will have to restart from square one after a Supreme Court ruling yesterday.

* Latin America: The U.N.'s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean believes that the region will suffer an economic contraction of 0.4% in 2016 despite differing growth rates among subregions.

YouTube Source – CCTV News

Online Sources – Reuters, Voice of America, Fox News Latino, BBC News, Tampa Bay Times