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Brazil's acting president briefed US diplomats: WikiLeaks

Saturday, 14 May 2016 12:29 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 14 May 2016 2:10 AM ]

Brazilian acting President Michel Temer is seen during the first cabinet meeting in the capital Brasilia on May 13, 2016. (AFP)

Brazil's acting President Michel Temer has given political information to US diplomats in the South American country, whistleblower website WikiLeaks says, calling him a “US embassy informant.”

In a Friday tweet, WikiLeaks released two cables, dated January 11 and June 21, 2006, which contained summaries of conversations Temer had with the then US consul general in Sao Paulo, Christopher McMullen, along with another unidentified political official, ahead of that year's general election.

A federal lawmaker at the time, Temer gave his assessment of Brazil's political situation before the election that saw Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva re-elected to the presidency.

“Temer criticized Lula's narrow vision and his excessive focus on social safety net programs that don't promote growth or economic development,” reads the cable from January 11, 2006.

According to the June 21, 2006 cable, Temer censured the lack of power given to the ministers of his center-right PMDB party, which formed a coalition with the Workers' Party of Lula and his successor Dilma Rousseff (seen below).

“Temer spoke caustically of the Lula administration's miserly rewards for its allies in the PMDB,” reads the cable.

Temer stepped up from the post of vice-president to replace Rousseff, who was suspended as president on Thursday after the Senate voted 55 to 22 in favor of opening an impeachment trial against her.

The impeachment bid was launched over allegations that the president fiddled with government accounts in 2014 so she could increase public spending as a means of wooing votes for re-election.

Rousseff should stand a trial in the Senate within 180 days. The Senate will have to decide whether to disqualify her for presidency. If she is removed from office, Temer will retain the presidency until scheduled elections in 2018.

Rousseff has condemned the impeachment drive as a coup, pledging to fight on during the trial.

Brazil has been the scene of a major political turmoil over the past months, with embattled Rousseff intensively fighting for her political survival against opposition congressmen.

Rousseff is also under fire over a graft scandal at state oil company Petrobras, where she was the manager before taking office as president in 2010. She has denied the allegations against her as politically-motivated.

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