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Corruption fallout mounts for Lula's party

Rio de Janeiro / AFP
07/22/2005

The head of Brazil's ruling party in Congress resigned Thursday adding to a corruption scandal that has rocked the leftist party of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Paulo Rocha became the latest leader of the Workers Party (PT) to pay with his job for the scandal, hours after a congressional committee investigating the case revealed that at least 46 politicians and aides received bribes.

According to documents released by the committee, the 46 received a total of 12 million dollars from 2003, from acccounts controlled by Marcos Valerio, an advertising executive at the center of the cash-for-votes network set up by the PT.

The data was forwarded to the inquiry after Valerio was ordered to give details of the accounts.
They named lawmakers with conservative parties aligned with Lula's government, the Liberal and Progressive parties, as well as PT heavyweights such as Joao Paulo Cunha, a former House of Deputies speaker, and Rocha.

"This is the tip of an iceberg that could sink any Titanic," ventured the Estado de Sao Paulo daily.
Confirmation of the withdrawals backed accusations made by lawmaker Roberto Jefferson, of the Brazilian Workers Party (PTB), a government ally, that the PT paid 30,000 reals (12,800 dollars) a month to legislators to ensure support in Congress.

The allegations have already forced the resignations of several senior party officials, Lula's cabinet chief Jose Dirceu, and earlier this week his intelligence chief, Mauro Marcelo de Lima.

Resignations also have been pouring in from officials at several state enterprises suspected of taking part in the funding scheme.

Last week Valerio acknowledged his advertising agencies served as fronts for illegal PT financial operations and former party treasurer Delubio Soares admitted the slush fund had about 17 million dollars.

Soares refused to say where the money came from but insisted the funds -- though off the books -- were exclusively used for PT campaign expenses in the 2002 general elections and 2004 municipal elections.

The president has not been directly implicated in the scandal, but his popularity has fallen dramatically since it erupted. He still leads the pack of candidates heading into next year's presidential election, according to pollster Ibope.

The poll released Tuesday gave a 54 percent approval rating for Lula, down from 58 percent in March before the corruption allegations were made.

The poll of 2,002 people also found 53 percent trust Lula despite the allegations.
Lula continues to lead the pack of presidential hopefuls ahead of next year's election, with 22 percent far ahead of Jose Serra (six percent) and Sao Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin (two percent).