Transcript Suggests a Plot Behind Effort to Oust Brazilian President
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/24/world/americas/brazil-dilma-rousseff-impeachment-petrobras.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&
Brazil’s interim president, Michel Temer, on Monday suffered a major setback in his campaign to win over the country when a report of recordings surfaced suggesting that one of his ministers had plotted to head off the huge Petrobras corruption investigation by pursuing the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.
The minister, Romero Jucá, an influential leader in the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, or PMDB, though denying accusations of wrongdoing, said he would step down on Tuesday and return to the Senate. Earlier in the day, the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo published excerpts from a recorded conversation between Mr. Jucá and a former business executive that indicated they were seeking to impede the sprawling investigation in which both were caught up.
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According to Folha de S. Paulo, Mr. Jucá spoke to Sergio Machado, the former president of Transpetro, a subsidiary of Petrobras. Mr. Machado had left that position after being implicated in the Petrobras scandal.
The recordings, from a conversation in March, suggest that Mr. Jucá entered into an agreement with the goal of impeding and even possibly stopping the investigation. There was also a suggestion that the impeachment might have been part of that plan.
In one excerpt, Mr. Machado made reference to his desire for “the departure of Dilma.”
