Temer, the Senate and Chamber’s presidents, and another 20 politicians are reported in the Lava Jato. Out with all of them!
By PSTU Brazil.
As soon as they started, the denunciations of Odebrecht’s executives, named the “denunciations of the end of the world”, have shown their destructive power. In just one day, it went public the involvement of São Paulo’s governor Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB) and none other than Michel Temer (president), as well as the Senate and Chamber’s high summit.
According to the site Buzzfeed, the testimony of a former executive of the contractor company reported that Temer requested R$10 million to the contractor in 2014, an amount that would be divided between Paulo Skaf, the FIESP’s president and candidate to the São Paulo’s government by the PMDB at the time, and the current Chief of Staff Minister, Eliseu Padilha, who would redistribute the money to the party. The fortune would be payed in kind to José Yunes, a close friend of Temer’s and current Presidency’s special consultant.
The denunciations came from the Odebrecht’s former vice-president of Institutional Relations, Cláudio Melo Filho, and he testified that the negotiations with Temer took place at the Palacio do Jaburu [Vice-President residence] itself.
The back-then Odebrecht’s executive use to intermediate the millionaire transfers directly with the company president, Marcelo Odebrecht. The money was paid as a registered electoral donation and slush fund. The total of these transfers to politicians would have reached more than R$22 million. The compensation, on its hand, would come as part of a series of measures of Odebrecht’s interest by the National Congress and the government. A real give-and-take.
More than 20 politicians have been named in Cláudio Melo’s denunciation, including the current president of the Chamber, Rodrigo Maia (DEM-RJ), the president of the Senate, Renan Calheiros (PMDB-AL), an ex-minister of Dilma’s government and the ex-president’s major supporter until the last moment, the ruralist Kátia Abreu (PMDB-GO), the Bahia’s former governor, Jaques Wagner (PT), and others, like Eduardo Cunha[1] and Antonio Palocci[2].
Alckmin, The “Saint”
On Friday 9, it came up a complaint against the São Paulo’s governor, Geraldo Alckmin, who is considered the real name behind the nickname “Santo” (Saint), mentioned on the Odebrecht list. According to these new accusations, the contractor company would have paid R$2 million through slush fund for the Tucano’s[3] campaign in 2010 and 2014.
Another Tucano that appears on the list is the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Serra, who would have received about R$23 millions through slush fund in 2010.
General Strike! Stop The PEC And The Social Security Reform Now!
The new round of accusations took place a day after the huge mess that involved the Senate and the Supreme Federal Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal, STF), and it represents another setback to the already weakened Temer’s government. It shows how the entire government and National Congress are involved in corruption. The same government and Congress that now try to attack the workers’ social security and to approve a Constitutional Amendment (Proposta de Emenda Constitucional, PEC) that freezes public spending for 20 years. The political and institutional crisis continue to deepen.
This government and the National Congress do not have the slightest legitimacy to approve anything. The denunciations and popular indignation against politicians will increase even more, demoralizing more and more a president who cannot even go out to the streets, and an already hated National Congress.
This situation poses the necessity of a General Strike with demonstrations on the streets that defeat this social security reform and the PEC. From the point of view of base workers, there is a willingness to struggle, and they consider the General Strike as something possible, the problem is that the unions are not willing to organize it. Our rights cannot be negotiated. This is why the unions’ leaderships must abandon any kind of negotiation with the government, posing themselves from now on to serve the construction of the strike among their bases.
Out With All Of Them! Prison And Goods Confiscation Of The Corrupt And Corrupting Ones!
Let’s take down Temer and this corrupt National Congress! The population and workers have already seen how Justice works in this country. The STF saved Renan Calheiros shamelessly so he could guarantee the PEC 55 and the social security reforms in the Congress without any obstacle. The Judiciary deserves no trust from us.
In addition, the figures that went to jail were sent, short time after, to serve “house arrest” in their mansions. This is the case of Odebrecht’s owner, who will not stay in jail even for two and a half years, when if he were a poor man he would have to stay in jail more than 30 years.
While the Odebrecht’s executives are denouncing the corruption cases, the company signs a leniency agreement. It pays a fine that represents a ridiculous small amount regarding everything it already stole, and it continues operating normally to steal even more, while their owners and managers serve house arrest in their mansions. Odebrecht must be expropriated and put under workers’ control!
Only the workers’ struggle can guarantee a real punishment of all the corrupt ones and put and end to this scam. We must demand the arrest of all corrupt and corrupting ones, their goods confiscations and the expropriation of all contractor companies involved in corruption.
Workers Must Govern
The PMDB, PSDB, DEM, PT, PCdoB are all together in this corruption scheme, and when they rule they attack the working class and the population. Jorge Viana’s (PT-AC) effort to save Renan showed how this party does not really want to take out Temer, not even struggle in order to prevent the PEC from being implemented. He only wants all the “dirty service” of fiscal adjustment to be driven by this government so he can electorally channel its wearing.
Enough of this! Neither this government nor this Congress or the previous government represent us! Out with all of them! The workers must govern, relying on their own forces and through popular councils organized in the struggles, workplaces, neighborhoods and peripheries.
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Notes:
[1] Former President of the Chamber of Deputies, separated due to involvement in the corruption scheme.
[2] Chieff of Staff during Dilma’s government.
[3] Tucano: name given to the members or supporters of the PMDB.
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Translation: Misty M.
