Brazilians have taken to the streets across the country to protest the appointment of former president Ignacio Lula da Silva to Dilma Rousseff’s cabinet, as critics said leaked recordings of phone calls between the pair suggested the move was created to protect the ex-leader from arrest.
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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Protesters gathered in cities across Brazil on Thursday as President Dilma Rousseff prepared to swear in her predecessor and mentor as chief of staff, a stunning development that government supporters believe will ease the political crisis roiling Latin America’s largest country but that detractors call a naked attempt to avoid prosecution in corruption probes.
Rumors of Silva’s possible appointment surfaced after the former leader was taken to a police station this month to answer questions connected to the corruption probe, which centers on the state-run oil company Petrobras.
Lula will replace Jaques Wagner, who will now lead Rousseff’s group of political advisors.
She played up Lula’s political acumen and said she would give him “the necessary powers…to help Brazil”.
Outrage at the scandal prompted more than a million people to join demonstrations across Brazil on Sunday, calling for Rousseff’s impeachment. Lula has far greater charisma than Rousseff, and the political instinct for forging alliances and holding them together. “We’re not clowns. Brazil is better than all of this”, Reuters news agency quoted one Brasilia protester as saying. It provoked angry scenes in congress between members of Rousseff’s Workers Party and opposition deputies demanding her resignation.
Police said 2,500 people demonstrated outside the presidential palace in the capital of Brasilia and others flocked to Sao Paulo’s main Avenue Paulista and that of other cities.
An article by UOL said that the conversation between Rousseff and Lula took place two hours after Moro ordered an end to the wiretaps of Lula’s phone.
Public anger was only fueled when, in the wake of the appointment, the uncompromising federal judge overseeing the “Car Wash” investigation released secretly recorded conversations between Rousseff and Lula, which he said showed they were apparently trying to influence or gain assistance from courts and prosecutors in Lula’s favor.
Silva’s appointment is being widely viewed as a way to shield him from his legal woes because under Brazilian law, only the Supreme Court can authorize the investigation, imprisonment and trial of Cabinet members and legislators.
Cristiano Zanin Martins, Mr Lula’s lawyer, described the leak as “arbitrary” and said it was created to provoke “social turmoil”, according to the news website G1.
“Brazil can not continue with them anymore”, opposition politician Rubens Bueno said.
Once appointed, Lula can only be tried in the Supreme Court, placing him out of the reach of ongoing state and federal probes.
Both Rousseff and Silva have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and most of those mentioned in the plea deal disputed the allegations.
She also confirmed that the former president will seek to bring financial stability to Brazil, “a compromise … which he acted upon during the eight years of his government”.
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Prosecutors have used plea bargains throughout the investigation to implicate a steadily expanding Who’s Who politicians and business executives in the spiraling scandal.
