Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Monday 22 May 2017

Brazilians call for president to resign after graft charges

SARAH DiLORENZO
Associated Press
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil-
ians around the country
staged demonstrations
Sunday to call for their pres-
ident to step down after
the supreme court opened
an investigation into alle-
gations he endorsed the
payment of hush money to
a jailed former lawmaker.
The accusations against
President Michel Temer
have plunged Latin Amer-
ica’s largest nation into
crisis yet again, sending its
currency and stocks plum-
meting and stalling a series
of reforms designed to pull
the economy out of a pro-
tracted recession. It’s been
just a year since Temer took
over as president following
the impeachment and re-
moval of his predecessor,
Dilma Rousseff.
Now, the calls are grow-
ing for Temer himself to be
impeached or resign. The
latest to join that chorus Brazil’s President Michel Temer speaks during a national address from the Planalto Presidential Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, Saturday,
was Brazil’s bar associa- May 20, 2017.
tion, which voted late Sat- Associated Press
urday to submit a request from Rousseff because they gos, a 41-year-old biology Temer has defied calls to him — something that it is
for Temer’s impeachment regard her impeachment teacher. resign, saying the record- unlikely to do.
to Congress. as politically motivated In Rio de Janeiro, 150 peo- ing was doctored and Attorney General Rodrigo
Unions, political parties and and illegitimate. On Sun- ple waved union flags on denying any wrongdoing. Janot, who has accused
activists called for Brazilians day, they were protesting the boardwalk along Co- The recording appears to Temer of corruption and
to come out Sunday to de- Temer’s proposals to loosen pacabana beach. They have Temer endorsing the obstruction of justice in
mand Temer step down, labor laws and change the signed a giant banner with payment of bribes to ex- the case before the court,
though protests in major pension system as much as messages, such as, “Out House Speaker Eduardo has said that a preliminary
cities were smaller than ex- they were responding to with Temer” and “I want a Cunha in exchange for his analysis of the recording
pected. the recent allegations. better Brazil.” Another 100 silence. Cunha is serving a showed that the conversa-
Hundreds of people hud- “We’re here to get Temer people marched to the sentence after a corruption tion it contained was logi-
dled under umbrellas and out of government be- house of Rodrigo Maia, conviction. cal and coherent and its
building porticos to avoid cause he is a coup-lead- speaker of the lower house Temer has asked the Su- contents were consistent
the rain in Sao Paulo. Many er, because he is against of Congress, to call for Te- preme Federal Tribunal, with the testimony of peo-
said they have opposed teachers” and other work- mer’s ouster and immedi- Brazil’s highest court, to sus- ple cooperating with the
Temer since he took over ers, said Tatiana Camar- ate elections. pend its investigation into prosecutor’s office.q