The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has come under further pressure after being personally implicated in an alleged corruption racket involving the supposed misappropriation of his workforce\u2019s wages.<\/p>\n
Bolsonaro, a far-right populist who admires Donald Trump, took office in January 2019 vowing to \u201cforever free the fatherland from the yoke of corruption\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Monday, however, a leading Brazilian news website published a series of reports that threatened to fatally undermine Bolsonaro\u2019s already tenuous claim to be a clean-living conservative. UOL claimed its reports, called \u201cthe secret life of Jair\u201d, suggested the president had presided over an embezzlement scheme known as the rachadinha during his almost 30 years as a lawmaker in the lower house of congress, between 1991 and 2018.<\/p>\n
One UOL story featured audio recordings, obtained from an unnamed source, in which Andrea Siqueira Valle, the sister of Bolsonaro\u2019s second wife, allegedly discussed how her brother was sacked from his job in Bolsonaro\u2019s congressional chambers. \u201cAndr\u00e9 caused loads of problems because Andr\u00e9 never gave back the right amount of money that had to be given back, you see? He was supposed to give back 6,000 reals, but Andr\u00e9 would only hand over 2,000 or 3,000. This went on for ages until Jair said: \u2018Enough \u2013 get rid of him because he never gives me back the right amount of money.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In Brazil, the illegal and reportedly widespread practice by which politicians demand a slice of their staff\u2019s wages is known as the rachadinha, a slang term which roughly translates as the \u201csalary split\u201d or \u201ccashback\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a second recording obtained by UOL, the woman identified as Bolsonaro\u2019s former sister-in-law says: \u201cIt\u2019s not nothing I know. There\u2019s a lot that I could do \u2026 to screw Jair\u2019s life. That\u2019s what they\u2019re afraid of.\u201d<\/p>\n
The revelations \u2013 which Bolsonaro\u2019s lawyer rejected as being based on \u201cuntruthful and nonexistent facts\u201d \u2013 sparked renewed calls for the impeachment of a president who is already facing mounting public anger over his anti-scientific response to the Covid pandemic, which has killed nearly 525,000 Brazilians. Three mass anti-Bolsonaro demonstrations have been held since late May, most recently on Saturday, when thousands of dissenters hit the streets after allegations of dodgy dealings involving the procurement of Covid vaccines.<\/p>\n
\u201cBolsonaro\u2019s tenure in the presidency is becoming increasingly intolerable,\u201d tweeted Vem Pra Rua (Hit the Streets), a rightwing group that played a key role in the 2016 impeachment of then president Dilma Rousseff.<\/p>\n
Leonardo Sakamoto, a UOL columnist, claimed the recordings provided strong evidence that Bolsonaro had presided over \u201ca mafia scheme\u201d and the presidency had been captured by a \u201ccrime conglomerate\u201d.<\/p>\n
Bolsonaro\u2019s lawyer, Frederick Wassef, told journalists: \u201cNo \u2018cashback\u2019 scheme ever existed in the chambers of congressman Jair Bolsonaro or any of his sons.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bolsonaro is suffering a wretched spell, even by the turbulent standards of his two-and-a-half-year-old presidency which critics say has inflicted historic damage on Brazil\u2019s environment, public health and international reputation.<\/p>\n
In March, his main political rival, the leftist former president Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, roared back on to the political scene, with polls now suggesting Lula would trounce Bolsonaro in next year\u2019s presidential election.<\/p>\n
In April, the senate launched a parliamentary inquiry into Bolsonaro\u2019s Covid response, with its televised hearings cementing in the minds of voters the president\u2019s responsibility for Brazil\u2019s chaotic \u2013 and, some now suspect, corrupt \u2013 handling of the health emergency. In late June, the inquiry heard explosive allegations that Bolsonaro had failed to act after being alerted to suspicions over a 1.6bn real (\u00a3232m) deal to import India\u2019s Covaxin shot.<\/p>\n
Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing and last week tried to distance himself from the claims of health ministry corruption, declaring: \u201cI\u2019ve no way of knowing what goes on in the ministries.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Saturday\u2019s protests, however, many demonstrators carried placards denouncing what they called the deadly human impact of alleged corruption within Bolsonaro\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho did you lose because of a dollar?\u201d said one poster, in reference to separate allegations that a health ministry official sought $1 kickbacks for the purchase of AstraZeneca shots.<\/p>\n
Another protester\u2019s placard said: \u201cBolsonaro behind bars now!\u201d<\/p>\n
Maur\u00edcio Machado, a 43-year-old waiter who joined the rally, said: \u201cHe\u2019s corrupt. He\u2019s a denialist. I\u2019m not a psychiatrist, but perhaps he is a psychopath.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite growing calls for Bolsonaro\u2019s impeachment \u2013 to which the rightwing New party added its voice on Monday \u2013 experts say that remains an improbable outcome. Bolsonaro\u2019s ratings are plummeting but he has brokered a sturdy, if capricious support base in congress, including the lower house president, Arthur Lira, who would need to approve impeachment proceedings.<\/p>\n
\u201cImpeachment doesn\u2019t depend on the opposition. Impeachment depends on Arthur Lira,\u201d said Maria Cristina Fernandes, a columnist for the Valor Econ\u00f4mico newspaper. \u201cAnd Arthur Lira has shown no sign of wanting to do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has come under further pressure after being personally implicated in an alleged corruption racket involving the supposed misappropriation of his workforce\u2019s wages. Bolsonaro, a far-right populist who admires Donald Trump, took office in January 2019 vowing to \u201cforever free the fatherland from the yoke of corruption\u201d. On Monday, however, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n