Corruption scandals rock Brazil's progressive image

By Helmut Reuter Sep 16, 2011, 11:46 GMT

Sao Paulo - The meeting between Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and her then tourism minister Pedro Novais is only believed to have lasted five minutes.

That is how long it took for Novais to present his resignation, and for an angry Rousseff to accept it, in the latest corruption scandal tarnishing Brazil's reputation since she succeeded Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as president in January.

No less than five ministers have stepped down since the beginning of June, all except one following massive corruption allegations.

That is too much even for the patient Brazilians, who have taken to the streets.

The Tourism Ministry had already been targeted by state prosecutors. More than 35 of its officials were arrested in August on embezzlement-related charges.

Novais, 81, is also suspected of having engaged in irregularities between 2003 and 2010 while he was member of parliament. The accusations against him include paying a household employee with tax money, and using a parliament driver for his wife's shopping trips.

Yet the politician, who resigned earlier this week, continued to insist that he was the victim of 'slander and defamation.'

Novais belongs to the Brazilian Democratic Party, Rousseff's main coalition partner and Vice-President Michel Temer's party.

Wagner Rossi from the same party also stepped down as agriculture minister in August, following the resignation of transport minister Alfredo Nascimento from the small Republic Party in July.

The heaviest blow for Rousseff and her Workers' Party, however, was the departure in June of her party comrade and chief of staff Antonio Palocci, who was unable to satisfactorily explain why his fortune had grown 20-fold while he was member of parliament from 2006 to 2010.

At the beginning of August, defence minister Nelson Jobim from the Brazilian Democratic Party also stepped down - this time, however, not over corruption allegations, but over critical remarks he had made about two other ministers.

The string of resignations has shocked citizens. On September 7, the day marking Brazil's 1822 independence from Portugal, tens of thousands of people participated in a 'national march against corruption.'

Demonstrators in Sao Paulo and Brasilia chanted slogans slamming Brazil as 'the country of thieves' and demanding 'zero tolerance against corruption.'

In the same vein, respected media such as the dailies Folha de Sao Paulo and Estado de Sao Paulo and the weekly Veja have played an important part in unveiling corruption cases.

Corruption scandals could taint Brazil's image as a socially progressive, economically booming country which has been trusted with organizing the 2014 Football World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, as Rousseff well knows.

Contrary to her predecessor Lula da Silva, however, Rousseff is not on an outright warpath against the media.

'I prefer the racket made by a free press to the peace of a dictatorship,' Rousseff - a former resistance fighter during Brazil's 1964-85 military dictatorship - said before becoming president.

There is no pardon for corruption, Rousseff has repeatedly emphasized - and the recent string of resignations seems to signal that she intends to keep her promise.