Brazil: Bolsonaro sacks key minister of corruption case – 18/02/2019

The President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, He threw on Monday a key minister, the secretary general of the presidency, Gustavo Bebiannoin the middle of a corruption scandal linked to the embezzlement of public funds for the election campaign of the ruling Liberal Social Party (PSL).

The move, ordered a month and a half after the arrival of Bolsonaro in power, was confirmed by the presidential spokesman, General Otávio Rego Barros, who said at a press conference that the decision had been taken "by the court" of the president, without giving further explanations, and added that he would be replaced by a general.

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Bebbiano was president of the PSL at the time of the campaign and is considered responsible for the use of "nominated candidates" for the distribution of public money games allocated to electoral campaigns.

The climate was rare because Bebianno reported receiving death threats after supporters of the president revealed his cell phone number via social media.

Bolsonaro tried to moderate the crisis in his cabinet by announcing to his spokesman that he would personally travel to Congress to present his government's biggest draft, the pension reform, the main measure of the government. economic adjustment planned by the Superintendent of the Economy. Paulo Guedes.

The scandal involving the PSL revealed by the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo has eroded part of the government's program.

The issue is centered on Bebianno and has led the president's son, Rio de Janeiro's advisor, Carlos Bolsonaro, to publicly accuse him of being a "liar".

"When I leave office, I will speak, I put things in my head," said Bebianno, president of the PSL during the election campaign last year, before we know that & ### He had been dismissed.

Carlos Bolsonaro called Twitter for "liar" in Bebianno for having said that he had spoken to his father three times about the scandal of misappropriating campaign funds to political figures who were simulating acts of proselytizing in the state of Pernambuco. that the son denied the president.

The case highlighted the unrestricted transit of Bolsonaro's three political sons to Plbadto Palace and consolidated the central role of the military core of the government.

Indeed, the replacement of Bebianno in the general secretariat of the presidency will be retired General Floriano Peixoto Vieira Neto.

Thus, members of the military core will be promoted to nine members of the government, all occupying key positions. The embezzlement scandal about which Bebianno is being investigated is part of the activities of the so-called "hiring parties" like the PSL, to which Bolsonaro joined last year, to increase its collection . Bebianno has denied preparing a complaint against Bolsonaro, in the same way as was broadcast this weekend, as a revenge for being accused of embezzling money. .

The government is facing two plans to refound the Brazilian structure this week, as the package of measures against the crime of the Minister of Justice, the former judge Lava Jato, Sérgio Moro, and the pension reform, which must be approved with a special parliamentary majority because it is a constitutional reform aimed at raising the age to 65 for men and 62 for women. Currently, there is no age limit and has only been cited for 35 and 30 years respectively.

"I will make three times the threats that they have made to me, but in a legal way, denouncing everyone," said Bebianno, who denied telling Boloniaaro that he had gone insane.

Bebianno is believed to be part of the sending, during the campaign, of about $ 120,000 from the state's mandatory support fund to a ghost candidate supposed to use it as a figure of bow.

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Since then, the president's allies have been divided by the role that Bolsonaro attributed to his son Carlos, who holds no office in the federal government, and by the way he treated Bebianno, one of his trusted men.

The crisis has had to mistreat markets that fear that the political erosion of Bolsonaro is jeopardizing the progress of pension reform. The stock market lost 1.04% yesterday and the real lost ground against the dollar, trading at 3.73 units per US dollar, versus 3.70 at the close of trading on Friday. On the negative side, the common shares of Petrobras Distribuidora, one of the subsidiaries of the state-owned company Petrobras, were the main losses of the day, losing 3.51%.

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Source: ANSA, AFP and EFE

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