Versión Español
EspañolBrazil President Michel Temer has been formally accused of corruption by the country’s Prosecutor’s Office, which has asked Congress to decide whether he should be removed from office for six months while impeachment hearings take place.
“Between March and April 2017, with the free and conscious will of the President of the Republic, Michel Miguel Temer Lulia, in his capacity as head of the Executive Branch, had an undue advantage of US $150,322 from the owner of the JBS refrigeration industry,” the accusation read on Monday, June 26.
The request from the Prosecutor’s Office must receive approval from two-thirds of Congress — 342 out of 513 — which could leave the country temporarily without a president. Just one year ago, former President Dilma Rousseff was impeached in a similar fashion.
- Read More: Reporters in Venezuela’s Protests Face Brutal Repression from Dictatorship
- Read More: Videotapes Implicating Ecuador Officials in Odebrecht Corruption Surface in Brazil’s Probe
If Temer is removed, Congress will have to elect a new president within 30 days, and that person will stay in office until the end of 2018.
The accusation against Temer involve devastating reports from prosecutors and the federal police, who have managed to work cooperatively with JBS executives and the courts to obtain several audio recordings clearly demonstrating that Temer is guilty.
One of the recordings contains audio in which the president, who is also under investigation for obstruction of justice and illicit association, tried to buy the silence of a former member of Congress currently imprisoned for participating in the Petrobras corruption scandal.
Temer is also under investigation for alleged “abuse of economic and political power” during the 2014 presidential campaign, for which there were many notable “irregularities.”
Sources: El Nuevo Herald; Diario las Américas; El País.
