Yep, you’ve likely guessed by the title that the author’s Pepé Escobar, and whoo-eee, he’s on fire with indignant condemnation of the most recent soft-coup in the global south, this one of course, aimed at the ‘easiest target’ of the BRICS nations. Please let me just paste in some of; weekends are crazy with chores here, and you can read the rest if you’ve a mind to (I’m betting you will).
“Forget about hanging chads, as in Florida 2000. This is a day that will live in infamy all across the Global South – when what was one of its most dynamic democracies veered into a plutocratic regime, under a flimsy parliamentary/judicial veneer, with legal and constitutional guarantees now at the mercy of lowly comprador elites.
After the proverbial marathon, the Brazilian Senate voted 55-22 to put President Dilma Rousseff on trial for “crimes of responsibility” – related to alleged window dressing of the government’s budget.
This is the culmination of a drawn-out process that started even before Rousseff won re-election in late 2014 with over 54 million votes. I have described the bunch of perpetrators of what Brazilian creativity has termed ‘golpeachment’ (a mix of coup – “golpe” in Portuguese – and impeachment) as Hybrid War hyenas.
Sophisticated golpeachment – supported by what amounts to an Electoral Inquisition College – has propelled Hybrid War to whole new levels.
Hybrid War as applied to Brazil exhibited classic elements of a color revolution. Of course there was no need for no-fly zones or humanitarian imperialism to “protect human rights” – not to mention provoking a civil war. But considering the high resistance level of the victim state, where civil society is very dynamic, Hybrid War designers in this case bet on a mix of capitulation – and betrayal – of local elites, mixed with “peaceful protests” and a relentless mainstream media campaign. Call it ‘Civil War Light.’
That carried with it a fabulous cost-benefit ratio. Now the (immensely corrupt) Brazilian political system and the current executive/legislative/judiciary/mainstream media alignment can be used by the usual suspects for their geopolitical agenda.
Welcome to regime change light – politics, in a nutshell – as war by other means on the BRICS. A new software, a new operating system. Carrying a pathetic corollary; if the US is the Empire of Chaos, Brazil has now gloriously reached the status of Sub-Empire of Scoundrels.”
Next comes his section on: Scoundrels galore, and oh, yes they are. Followed by Meet the three Banana Republic amigos (Brutus 1 (Temer), Brutus 2 (Brazil’s number one crook, former speaker of the lower house Eduardo Cunha, facing charges of bribery and perjury, holder of illegal Swiss accounts, and now finally sidelined by the Supreme Court), Calheiros (the president of the Senate – who oversaw today’s impeachment vote – is the target of no fewer than nine separate money laundering/corruption Car Wash lines of investigation, plus another two criminal probes). He finishes with ‘All hail the neoliberal restoration’, as in: Wall Street, London, and a neoliberal feast. (again, more here)
From telesurenglish, ‘In Just One Day, Brazil’s Post-Coup President Sent the Country Back Decades’, Michel Temer has waged an all out attack on the country’s most progressive social and political achievements.
Key Ministries Eliminated
“Temer reduced the size of the cabinet to only 22 ministries, ostensibly in the name of austrity (sic). However, his choice of what ministries to cut or to fold into other ministries is telling of the interim president’s right-wing priorities.
- The Ministry of Culture has been eliminated
- The Ministry of Agrarian Development has been eliminated
- The Ministry of Science and Technology has been eliminated (it is now part of a much larger dysfunctional ministry, together with telecommunications)
- The Ministry of Women has been eliminated
- The Ministry of Racial Equality has been eliminated
- The Ministry of Human Rights has been eliminated
The Comptroller General, which once enjoyed independent status, has now become the Ministry of Supervision, Transparency and Control, which could affect its ability to investigate alleged corruption.
Questionable Choices for Ministers
The new minister of justice, Alexandre de Moraes, is a person well-known to social movements in the state of Sao Paulo. He previously served as secretary for security for the right-wing government of the state and in that capacity oversaw several brutal crackdowns on social protest, including an incident on Jan. 13, 2016, that was widely condemned for its excessive use of police force.
Furthermore, O Estado de S. Paulo said de Moraes served as a lawyer for Transcooper, a company accused of running a money laundering operation on behalf of PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital), the largest criminal organization in Brazil.
Other ministries are now being led by right-wing politicians such as Jose Sarney, who lost the presidential election to Rousseff in 2010.
The seven ministers facing corruption allegations also now enjoy a form of immunity, as only the Supreme Court can try them if they are sitting government ministers. When Rousseff attempted to appoint her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to the post of cabinet chief, she was accused of trying to shelter him from criminal charges and he was ultimately not allowed to assume the post.”
‘Brazil Coup: The First of Many Blows Against the People’; ‘Dilma is gone and it is very unlikely that she will ever return to power. The question that everybody is asking now is: what is going to happen to Brazil in the near future?’ by: João Feres Júnior, (I haven’t read it yet, but it includes several short videos.)
I know the Intercept’s done a number of articles/exposés on Dilma’s ‘impeachment’, but as I’m rather Intercept-averse, I’m sure you can google or duck, duck, go them on your own. ;-)
Dunno if there’s really any there here, but FWIW:
