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I'm
sure you heard our president was impeached, but I need to start my
report from this point, because all that is happening now is a
consequence of this impeachment.
When
Dilma was in office, the House of Representatives’ leader in
Brazil, Cunha, was being investigated by the federal police for acts
of corruption (bribes, favoring his companies on public contracts,
deviating money from public contracts to his own account, and so on).
His party, PMDB, was part of the government, as the vice president,
Temer, and the Senate leader, Calheiros, were in his party too, and
they supported president Dilma’s government.
As
investigations continued, other people from PMDB, found themselves
involved in those scandals, including these two I have just cited.
Cunha
asked for Dilma’s suport and her party, PT, in order for
investigations to stop. Dilma refused to comply with this request.
PMDB,
then, decided to start an alliance with the government's opposition,
which has just lost the presidential election and was also being
investigated, and other opposing parties with the objective to out
Dilma.
The
majority in Congress voted for her impeachment, but, because Dilma
didn't commit any crime or illegal action, they couldn't take away
her political rights. The situation is very absurd, because she can
still run for office anytime she wants.
The
vice president became president, and his new allies from the
opposition became part of his team of secretaries. They are the
majority in Congress and they are taking this opportunity to pass
"unpopular" laws and renovations to existing laws.
They
limited government expenses for the next 20 years, therefore, even if
our economy grows, the country will not be able to adjust its
expenses on education or health care, for instance.
Now
they are trying to change working and retirement laws.
Regarding
working laws, thee current legislation would lose its power, because
the employer would be allowed to not follow it as long as they have
employees consent. This means that employees could be harassed to
accept longer shifts and lower wages, with no protection from the
judiciary branch.
Today
we have a public retirement system, with no minimum age for retiring,
but with a minimum time of contributions, which are taken
automatically from our pay checks. The new government wants to create
a minimum age of 65 years old for everybody, and 49 years of
contribution are going to be required in order to retire with the
same working salary. People who works in rural areas, teacher,
nurses, would all be under those rules, even workers in high risk
jobs.
There
are other measurements to decrease the size of our government and
transform constitutional rights into privileges.
On
Friday, the entire country is organizing a strike, paralyzing public
transportation, schools and public services. There is also going to
be a protest asking for new elections, democracy, and against those
laws I told you before.
I
hope it works out, because in past protests police act with violence,
the mass media didn't report them and nothing changed.
People
are worried Congress will cancel next year's election.
This
government has a 4% approval rate according to the latest polls. And
the worst part is that the people in Congress are owners of big
companies and would benefit from these changes on the working and
retirement laws. If they find a way to stay in office without the
people's approval, we are doomed.
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Since
then, this is what happened:
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The general strike took place, paralyzing schools, public services and public transportation, with no effect in the politics whatsoever;
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The current president, Temer, was caught in a big bribery scandal, with recorded phone calls in which he agreed n buying Cunha’s silence and a recorded video of an assistant receiving a suitcase full of money paid by a company called Friboy in exchange his influence in changing laws, but nothing has happened with him;
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Temer has also exchanged support in congress by limiting the creation of indigenous reservations from legislators who own big plantations;
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The current government has changed Brazil’s educational system without consulting its population, decreasing the subjetcs taught in public schools and creating a bigger gap between private and public education; and
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The ex-president, Lula, who had a very popular government, was considering being candidate in the next presidential elections and had great chances of winning according to the latest polls, was charged guilty for exchanging public contracts from Brazilian oil company Petrobras for an apartment for himself, but there are no documents indicating that he owns the apartment or no money trace indicating he received anything from anybody in exchange of his influence.
Well,
this is how we have been living down here, with no certainty of
justice or any of our democratic institutions. I’ll let you guys
know if anything new comes up around here. Wish us luck.
