Removing Dilma Rousseff will not solve Brazil crisis: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Robert Valencia, a political commentator in Washington, about recent developments in Brazil’s political arena.

A rough transcription of the interview appears below.

Press TV: Can Rousseff get back to presidency and go for a referendum? How do you see this?

Valencia: According to some accounts in Brazil, even some senators are saying that the chances of having Dilma Rousseff removed from office is diminishing. We have seen massive protests across the country including Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. People are protesting the fact that Dilma Rousseff could be impeached and actually the current president, if you call it, Michel Temer, is not as popular as you would think he is. He only has 11 percent approval from Brazilians. They are not happy with him being in power and there is a particular reason why this is happening because even though Dilma Rousseff is accused of corruption, if you look at the chain of command in Brazil, they are not escaping from any corruption scandals including the vice president himself and people who are in congress are also accused of corruption.

So in my opinion getting Dilma Rousseff removed from office will really not solve an institutional crisis in that country. Corruption is ubiquitous everywhere in the country and that needs to be resolved. Removing President Dilma will not resolve the problem and I think in my opinion it is taking away the attention. The real reason why Dilma Rousseff is facing impeachment is because Brazil is going through a really difficult economic hardship and unemployment rates are skyrocketing. That is the main reason why Dilma Rousseff is facing impeachment. If Brazil went back to its old glorious days when they were having economic growth and was keeping poverty levels to a minimum, then we would not be seeing impeachment, petitions or anything like that. 

Press TV: How much of this do you think is homegrown and how much of this is pressure on Rousseff coming from other entities, many pointing to the United States, and in general what we are seeing in a move in several Latin American countries as actually basically trying to turn back around a lot of the progress that had been made in some of these countries?

Valencia: I could not say for sure whether the United States has any kind of involvement with anything that is happening in Brazil or the rest of Latin American countries. If you look at the case of Venezuela, it is actually the Organization of American States that has taken a stronger stance against the Maduro administration. And the same goes in Argentina, when you have a US-friendlier government on the helm of Mr. Macri.

What we are seeing here in Brazil is that people do not know exactly if they want to impeach Dilma Rousseff. If you look at the time where congress was deciding whether Dilma Rousseff should be impeached or not, all the senators, all the representatives that took the microphone they said, ‘I am casting my vote on behalf of my grandmother. I am casting my vote on behalf of my daughter’s birthday.’ They cited completely preposterous reasons for their vote. So there is really not real reason, they have not provided a real reason why they should vote. A lot of the cases that we are seeing in Brazil is that, we see this is bargaining chips. What do I mean by this? A lot of senators are casting their votes expecting something in return. They say I will cast my vote against Dilma Rousseff but you have to provide me something.

So unfortunately I am not sure if this is being taken seriously and again I cite even personal reasons why they want to impeach Dilma Rousseff but not the reasons that she should be impeached for. I feel that this is more a political theatre than anything else.

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