News / Brazil

Brazil senator accuses President Rousseff of offering him hush money

Wednesday, 16 March 2016 8:43 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 16 March 2016 8:42 AM ]

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (photo by AFP)

A Brazilian senator has accused the country’s president of having indirectly offered him money so that he would keep silent on a snowballing corruption scandal.

Senator Delcidio Amaral of the country’s ruling Workers’ Party (PT) said on Tuesday that President Dilma Rousseff had made him the offer through Education Minister Aloizio Mercadante.

The scandal circles around Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras, which was formerly chaired by Rousseff.

Rousseff has not yet faced any charges in the scandal, which has become known as the Petrobras scheme.

Under the alleged scheme, construction companies conspired with Petrobras executives to overcharge the oil giant as much as USD two billion, some of which was paid out as bribes to politicians and parties.

Rousseff’s predecessor and mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula, has been accused of accepting a luxury apartment as a bribe from a company involved in the scheme. Prosecutors have also indicated that he may have had more to do with the scandal.

Lula has recently been offered a cabinet post in what opponents say is aimed at giving him immunity from potential prosecution.

Thousands of demonstrators protest against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in Manaus, Amazonas, northern Brazil, March 13, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Rousseff herself has been separately accused of having doctored government accounts in 2014 so she could increase public spending as a means of wooing votes for reelection. She faces potential impeachment and has invited thousands-strong protests.

Rousseff’s office, meanwhile, strongly reacted to the senator’s remarks by trying to implicate the education minister. The president “vehemently and indignantly repudiates the attempt to associate her name with the personal initiative of Minister Aloizio Mercadante,” it said.

Brazil’s economy experienced notable boost under Lula from 2003 until 2001, but has become enmeshed in complications under Rousseff.

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