BRAZIL: CORRUPTION SCANDAL UPDATE, WEEK OF 1-5

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 BRASILIA 002082 SIPDIS TREASURY FOR PARODI, STATE PASS TO USTR E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/05/2015 TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON BR SUBJECT: BRAZIL: CORRUPTION SCANDAL UPDATE, WEEK OF 1-5 AUGUST 2005: FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF DIRCEU TESTIFIES BEFORE ETHICS COMMITTEE REF: A. BRASILIA 1979 ¶B. BRASILIA 1874 ¶C. BRASILIA 1973 ¶D. BRASILIA 1631 ¶E. BRASILIA 2025 ¶F. BRASILIA 1602 Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR DENNIS HEARNE. REASONS: 1.4(B)(D). ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. Hearings on the corruption scandals (refs) in the Brazilian government continued this week, as Congressman Jose Dirceu, President Lula da Silva's former Chief of Staff and closest advisor, testified on 2 August before the Chamber's Ethics Committee. Dirceu categorically denied any awareness of the vote-buying and illicit campaign-funding schemes mounted by PT party leaders with private sector money man Marcos Valerio (refs). He also refuted PTB Congressman Roberto Jefferson's new allegations that he sought funds from telecommunications company Portugal Telecom for the Workers' Party (PT) and the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB) when he was Chief of Staff. In other developments, Congressman Valdemar Costa Neto, president of the Liberal Party (PL),resigned from his congressional seat, after admitting to illegal funds from the PT -- the first of several possible resignations by implicated congressmen on the horizon. Simone Vasconcelos, Valerio's financial director, testified to both judicial authorities and the Postal Service Congressional Inquiry Committee (CPI) that she had authorized the transfers in Brazilian reals valuing more than USD $27 million to congressmen and staffers, per her employer's instructions. Valerio, who is reportedly seeking a deal with prosecutors, also testified to authorities, further implicating Dirceu in the corruption scandal. On 3 August Roberto Jefferson told congressional questioners in the separate, newly-formed CPI on the monthly bribery allegations that he believed President Lula da Silva was not aware of the bribery activity. END SUMMARY. DIRCEU'S TESTIMONY: "I WILL FIGHT UNTIL THE END" -------------- --- ¶2. (U) On August 2, Brazilian congressman and former Chief of Staff Jose Dirceu (PT) delivered his long-awaited testimony before the Chamber's Ethics Committee, as a witness in the process filed against Congressman Roberto Jefferson (PTB) for lying and violating congressional decorum (ref F). (Note: Per refs, Jefferson's sensational allegations about high-level GOB and PT involvement in illicit money transactions and bribes for votes among congressmen triggered the current scandals. End note.) The eight-hour testimony was covered live by major TV stations, and there were rumors that Dirceu might resign before the session or direct fire against the president. Instead, Dirceu emphatically and categorically denied Jefferson's allegations that he was the master mind behind the alleged PT party's bribes-for-votes scheme: "I didn't organize (it),I am not the boss of a scheme and I would never allow the buying of parliamentary votes." Dirceu also stated that he was unaware of loans made by advertising executive Marcos Valerio to the PT and underscored that he would not resign: "I wouldn't be able to walk on the streets if, to safeguard my political and electoral rights, I had to resign. I will fight until the end." ¶3. (U) The highlight of the session was Dirceu's confrontation with Jefferson, who restated his claims against the former Chief of Staff, but did not produce any hard evidence. Talking at times directly into TV cameras, experienced criminal lawyer Jefferson challenged, in ironic and skeptical tones, the very notion that Dirceu, the closest advisor to Lula and the most influential figure in the PT, could possibly have been unaware of the illicit multi-million dollar pay off system run by the PT's former treasurer in conjunction with money man Marcos Valerio. He also launched news charges, accusing Dirceu of running another illegal financing scheme. According to Jefferson, Dirceu arranged a meeting between high-level executives of telecommunications company Portugal Telecom and President Lula, followed by a "delegation" trip to Portugal to negotiate illegal funds to pay back PT and PTB debts. Reportedly, the delegation was composed of Marcos Valerio, allegedly representing the PT, and the former PTB treasurer Emerson Palmieri. Portugal Telecom confirmed the meeting with Valerio, but denied that the subject discussed was party financing. Dirceu continued to deny all accusations and the Presidency released a statement refuting Jefferson's statements. ¶4. (U) In a parallel motion in the Chamber's Ethics Committee, Jefferson's PTB party filed a complaint against Dirceu and Liberal Party (PL) representatives Sandro Mabel and Valdemar Costa Neto for violating congressional decorum, due to their alleged involvement with the vote-buying scheme. Investigations initiated against the cited congressmen could lead to impeachment. (Note: The complaint against Costa Neto was nullified when he renounced his congressional seat paragraph 5 below. End note.) The complaint against Dirceu also may be rejected, given that he was a member of the Executive branch, not a congressman, when the alleged abuses occurred. THE FIRST CONGRESSIONAL RESIGNATION, MORE LIKELY TO COME -------------- -------------- ¶5. (U) On 2 August, Congressman Valdemar Costa Neto, president of the right-wing Liberal Party (PL),became the first congressman to resign from his seat amid corruption allegations. The Postal Service CPI received documents proving that PL treasurer, Jacinto Lamas, withdrew more than $4 million from Valerio's accounts. In his resignation speech, Neto acknowledged that he had been "misled" into accepting illegal payoffs from the PT, but that the money was used to pay political campaign debts, not to buy votes from his PL colleagues in Congress. By resigning, Costa Neto avoided being investigated by the Ethics Committee and losing his political rights to stand for re-election (Note: This is a venerable tactic among Brazilian politicians charged with improprieties. End note.) ¶6. (U) Five other congressmen from the Workers' Party (PT) who allegedly received money from Valerio's accounts may announce their resignation within the next days: former Speaker of the House Joao Paulo Cunha, Professor Luizinho, Paulo Rocha, Josias Gomes, and Joao Magno. PT president Tarso Genro stated this week that if PT members resign in order to keep political rights and run in the 2006 national election, they will be expelled from the party. In another development, the PT-connected president of Brazil's National Mint stepped down on August 4, after his name appeared in Valerio's list of cash withdrawers. He allegedly received illegal money while managing Jorge Bittar's (PT) 2004 campaign for Rio de Janeiro's city hall. VALERIO'S CASH HANDLER TESTIFIES -------------- ¶7. (U) Simone Vasconcelos, financial director at the SMPB, one of Marcos Valerio's companies, testified before the Federal Police and Postal Service CPI during the week. Vasconcelos admitted to transferring large sums of money from Valerio's accounts, per his instructions, to congressmen and their staffers. Vasconcelos presented lists of a total of 43 names of persons who withdrew money -- in Brazilian reals worth more than USD $27 million -- from Valerio's accounts. Vasconcellos also indicated Valerio paid a law firm that defended the PT during investigations of the 2002 murder of Celso Daniel, the PT mayor of Santo Andre, Sao Paulo. (Note: During his testimony before the Ethics Committee, Congressman Jefferson linked the January 2002 murder of Daniel with a corruption scheme in Santo Andre to funnel money to PT campaign coffers. Jefferson alleged Daniel was collecting evidence to denounce the scheme. Prosecutors in Sao Paulo continue to investigate the possibility that Daniel was murdered by hired gunmen after being tortured and forced to hand over a dossier implicating those involved, possibly including PT officials. End note.) JEFFERSON AND VALERIO EXONERATE LULA -------------- ¶8. (U) On 4 August Deputado Roberto Jefferson testified before the newly-established CPI for investigation into the allegations of monthly bribe payments ("mensalao") by the PT to allied congressmen for votes. (Note: Per refs, this CPI will continue the work already underway in Postal CPI, but with more focus on the bribery issues. Some critics have opined that the GOB has pushed for a multiplicity of CPIs, to defuse the impact of the congress's investigations. End note.) Jefferson was the first witness before the new CPI and reiterated charges he has made in the Postal CPI, ethics committee hearings and media, but with a striking difference: for the first time, Jefferson said that he did not believe President Lula da Silva had personal awareness of the irregular financial activities of PT leaders and Marcos Valerio. In earlier accounts, Jefferson had mentioned he personally had noted the bribery activity to a surprised Lula earlier this year, but Jefferson now seems intent on exonerating the president. Jefferson again placed blame for the intellectual authorship of the schemes on Dirceu. At week's end Marcos Valerio told the press that he now plans to "tell all I know," assigned responsibility to Dirceu, and indicated his belief that Lula was not aware of the improprieties. IMPEACHMENT SUITS FILED BY TWO PRIVATE LAWYERS -------------- - ¶9. (U) On 4 August, two little-know private attorneys filed impeachment requests with the Chamber of Deputies against Lula, holding him culpable for the corruption scandals. Chamber President Cavalcanti, who has authority for considering and disposing of the requests, stated he would "do nothing hasty" in considering the motions. Earlier in the week, Cavalcanti indicated he saw no grounds for impeachment. Four other impeachment requests, unrelated to the current situation, have been filed against Lula in private motions since he assumed office. All were shelved by the Chamber. COMMENT -------------- ¶10. (C) Dirceu's testimony this week drew a categorical line around him, and by extension, around Lula, Dirceu's only true superior in the GOB and PT. Dirceu professed complete innocence and unawareness of massive schemes he attributed to rogue officers of the PT -- a party that Dirceu helped to found and over which he has exerted unique dominance. Jefferson's witheringly ironic, on-camera challenges to this version in the ethics hearing resonated among a political class that has had no doubts about Dirceu's power. We tend to share the skepticism, as our own contacts with Dirceu have led us to believe there is little in the government or PT that escapes his attention and influence. Whatever the veracity of his account, Dirceu is a brilliant and ruthless survivor, who would be uniquely equipped among Brazilian politicians to carry off the big lie -- he endured interrogation during Brazil's dictatorship and later lived clandestinely in the country for eleven years, disguised by plastic surgery and a false name. But the affirmations of Dirceu's involvement by Jefferson and Valerio, and the persistent flow of new information that could demolish such an unequivocal story, leave Dirceu in an exposed position. ¶11. (C) For now, Dirceu's audacious approach, coupled with the protestations of Lula's innocence by Jefferson and Valerio, are reinforcing the shield around Lula. And for the moment, this seems to fit with the mood of most of the congress, opposition and public, who want a rigorous accounting of the scandal and will be happy to see the rolling heads of implicated politicians, but who remain wary of the trauma of a presidential impeachment. Whether this remains the case depends on new revelations that, in the current environment, seem likely to appear; on whether Dirceu -- in the event he faces disaster -- has evidence of Lula's complicity that he could unleash in anger against the man he reportedly feels abandoned him; and on whether Lula can reign in his provocative rhetoric of recent days and humbly accept the defense of appalling ignorance that most of Brazilian society still seems willing to afford him. LINEHAN