Negromonte, minister of cities has resigned over corruption allegations, making this the 7th minister to resign since Dilma Rousseff has taken office in January of 2011.
Mr Negromonte has been accused of awarding public work contracts to companies which financed his party, allegations he denies. -BBC News Latin America and the Caribbean
Brazil’s Labor Minister, Carlos Lupi, resigned last Sunday. He is the seventh minister to resign since President Rousseff took office in January. Six have left due to alleged corruption. The others to resign have been her Chief of Staff and the Ministers of Tourism, Transport, Defense, and Agriculture,.
It should be noted that most had been members of the previous government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Mr. Lupi “was being investigated after a Brazilian news magazine Veja reported in November that Mr Lupi and some of his aides had allegedly demanded kickbacks from charities and non-governmental organisations in exchange for funding from the ministry.”
BBC’s article is available here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16026561
The LA times published a recent article praising Dilma Rousseff, the current president of Brazil, for successfully holding her own as former-president Lula left big shoes to fill (finishing his two terms on an economic upswing). According to a recent poll, Rousseff’s approval rating is 71%. She has been seen as tough on corruption, something that plagued Lula’s administration, and justifiably critical of the US and Europe’s inability to successfully deal with their financial and debt crises. Brazil is still growing quickly which the article attributes to a commodity trade with China (benefitting from the high prices of iron ore and soy) and booming domestic consumption. Nevertheless, Brazil could be negatively affected if a slowdown or crash happens in China (it seems we aren’t quite past the days of the export driven, dependent-on-the-global-market economic strategy after all). Moreover, Brazil’s growth is expected to slower as the domestic consumption reaches its limit. The article notes that combined with this economic growth Rousseff’s moderate social spending has lifted many out of poverty, however she has not taken this opportunity to restructure the tax code or fiscal policy which could increase Brazil’s competitiveness in the long run. Finally, the article notes the one area in which Rousseff has made a break from Lula: she has distanced her administration from Iran, criticizing the practice of stoning women. “Her comment was characteristically uncompromising: “I do not agree with practices that have medieval characteristics [when it comes] to women,” Rousseff told the Washington Post. “There is no nuance; I will not make any concessions.” Rousseff was tortured under the military dictatorship in Brazil.
See the full article here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-brazil-dilma-20111016,0,7107872.story
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