UECE 2015/2

TEXT

[1]   The head of Brazil’s Senate, Renan  

Calheiros, has been accused of tax evasion,  

using a government jet to visit a surgeon who  

alleviated his baldness with hair implants and  

[5] allowing a construction company’s lobbyist to  

pay child support for his daughter from an  

extramarital affair with a television journalist. 

  Eduardo Cunha, the conservative  

speaker of Brazil’s lower house of Congress,  

[10] has also faced — and successfully battled — a  

list of corruption accusations, from  

embezzlement to living in an apartment paid  

for by a black-market money dealer. 

  In some democracies, figures facing such  

[15] situations might find themselves banished from  

public life even if they were never convicted.  

But not in Brazil, where the men who command  

the scandal-plagued Congress are actually 

increasing their power over the scandal

[20] plagued president, Dilma Rousseff.

  The move reflects one of the most  

profound shifts in political power in the country  

in decades — and is a clear measure of the  

troubles Ms. Rousseff now faces in the wake of  

[25] a sweeping bribery case involving Brazil’s  

national oil company. 

  “This is ‘House of Cards,’ Brazilian style,  

with the chiefs in Congress seizing a moment  

when the president is very weak,” said David  

[30] Fleischer, a professor emeritus of political  

science at the University of Brasília. “They are  

putting into motion a strategy of simply letting  

Dilma dangle in the wind,” he added. 

  The strategy seems to be working. While  

[35] both Mr. Cunha and Mr. Calheiros are on the  

list of dozens of political figures under  

investigation in connection with the bribery  

scandal, the congressional leaders appear to be  

deflecting attention from their own troubles by  

[40] revolting against Ms. Rousseff, whose public  

approval rating stands at a dismal 13 percent. 

  In doing so, they have managed to  

largely shield the Brazilian Congress from  

blame. Its own bleak approval rating climbed  

[45] to 11 percent in April from 9 percent in March,  

according to Datafolha, a prominent Brazilian  

polling company. The survey, conducted  

through interviews with 2,834 people, has a  

margin of sampling error of plus or minus two  

[50] percentage points. 

  Ms. Rousseff, who narrowly won re

election in October, is facing huge protests 

calling for her impeachment, with many  

Brazilians fuming over the sluggish economy  

[55] and revelations of the broad bribery scheme at  

the national oil company, Petrobras. She was  

chairwoman of the board at the state-

controlled oil giant from 2003 to 2010, roughly 

corresponding to the period when the scheme  

[60] was started. 

  The scandal involved executives at  

Petrobras accepting vast amounts of bribes,  

enriching themselves while also channeling  

funds to political figures and to Ms. Rousseff’s  

[65] leftist Workers Party, according to testimony by  

former executives. 

  No testimony has emerged indicating  

that Ms. Rousseff personally profited from the  

scheme. But at the same time, Ms. Rousseff  

[70] has been put on the defensive, insisting that  

bribery proceeds were not channeled to her  

election campaign. The scandal moved closer  

to the president after the arrest of the  

treasurer of her party, João Vaccari Neto. 

[75]   As Ms. Rousseff and her party reel from  

the scandal, she is facing a rebellion from the  

centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party,  

which has anchored her coalition and controls  

both houses of Congress. 

[80]   Both Mr. Calheiros, the Senate leader,  

and Mr. Cunha, the speaker of the lower house,  

are members of the rebelling party. Ms.  

Rousseff’s own vice president, Michel Temer, is  

the leader of the PMDB, as the party is known,  

[85] and Mr. Temer is bolstering his own power  

after the president appealed to him to ease  

tensions with Congress. 

  At each turn in the bribery scandal, the  

PMDB’s chiefs have moved to erode the power  

[90] of the left-leaning Ms. Rousseff, stalling some  

of the austerity measures proposed by her  

finance minister; thwarting the president’s  

nominees for her cabinet; and advancing  

socially conservative measures aimed at  

[95] weakening gun-control laws and repealing  

legislation keeping teenagers from being tried  

as adults. 

  Cristovam Buarque, a respected senator  

on the left who voted against Ms. Rousseff in  

[100] the recent election, said the growing sway over  

the president by the troika formed by the  

heads of Congress and the vice president  

amounted to a “coup.” 

  “Instead of a general, a brigadier and an  

[105] admiral acting with the support of the armed  

forces, we have the vice president of the  

republic and the chiefs of Congress  

maneuvering with the support of the troops of  

the PMDB,” Mr. Buarque said. 

[110]   Congress’s growing resistance represents  

a turning point for an institution that has been  

widely despised in Brazil for its propensity to  

reward itself with pay raises when other parts  

of society endure austerity measures, and for  

[115] its capacity to shield its members facing legal  

challenges. 

  Nearly 40 percent of federal legislators  

who won large numbers of votes in the 2014  

elections are under investigation in an array of  

[120] crimes, including illegal 0deforestation,  

embezzlement and torture. It takes a great  

deal for any member to be expelled from  

Congress. One example: Hildebrando Pascoal,  

a legislator convicted of operating a death  

[125] squad whose victims were dismembered with  

chain saws. 

  Few federal legislators ever face  

imprisonment for any crimes because of the  

special judicial standing enjoyed by all 594  

[130] members of Congress allowing them to be tried  

only in Brazil’s Supreme Federal Tribunal,  

effectively producing years of delays in a court  

overwhelmed with examining many other  

pressing issues in Brazilian society. 

[135]   After facing scandals in the past, the  

figures now at the helm of Congress have  

shown an exceptional ability to withstand the  

allegations and resurrect their fortunes. Both  

Mr. Calheiros, the head of the Senate, and Mr.  

[140] Cunha, the head of the lower house, have  

asserted that they are innocent in connection  

to the bribery scheme at Petrobras. 

From: http://www.nytimes.com April 27, 2015 

The sentence “She was chairwoman of the board at the state-controlled oil giant from 2003 to 2010” (lines 56-58) contains a/an