by
Pepe Escobar
Dilma Rousseff entered the Senate
and calmly stared down her accusers. She left with her head held high
after exhorting those Senators to vote with their conscience. Most of
those politicians present probably had no idea what conscience means;
they’re no more than corrupt messenger boys. But the Brazilian
collective unconscious – Jung to the rescue – will be marked.
President Dilma Rousseff, in a
detailed, occasionally emotional speech, defended herself with honor
and dignity from accusations she committed a “crime of
responsibility”. She was not actually facing a political cesspool,
but that ‘Angel of History’ so beloved by Walter Benjamin.
History will judge her kindly.
Meanwhile, it ain’t over till a
dodgy politico sings. As I write, Rousseff is on the way to be
stripped from the presidency of the world’s 8th largest economy by
a bunch of scoundrel-cum-coward politicos. Her only fear, she said,
was the “death of democracy”. Rousseff’s impeachment means in
practice that democratic voting in one of the world’s largest
democracies will be cancelled by a parliamentary coup
remote-controlled by oligarchic interests. This is not, and never
was, about justice; it’s about dirty, nasty politics.
There is no techno-bureaucrat
argument whatsoever capable of proving the President should be
impeached because of state budget maneuvers that did not yield a
single cent for her pockets, or to the detriment of the Treasury –
and this in an astonishingly corruption-infested nation.
If we had to rely on a single
formulation to explain this charade to a global audience this should
be it: The current parliamentary/institutional/big business/big
banking/corporate media coup is the tool used by Brazilian oligarchs
to smash the wealth distribution drive that preceded, via President
Lula, the US-provoked global 2008 crisis of capitalism.
The Lula and subsequent Dilma
presidencies had adopted a very Chinese “win-win” model. There
was a sort of unwritten pact between social classes: The rich got
even richer while the poor got less poor.
But then the crisis hit BRICS
member Brazil with a vengeance. There was no Plan B – apart from
exporting commodities; the boom was over and traitors/conspirators in
the opposition saw an opening to reclaim power on the wheels of the
highly selective ‘Car Wash’ corruption investigation. And yet,
this being KafkaLand, the parliamentary impeachment drive against
Dilma is in fact a diversionary tactic devised to “tame” Car
Wash, so it wouldn’t hit oligarch-controlled right-wing
politicians.
The
vultures and their master plan
Emir Sader, one of Brazil’s top
sociologists, has summed up what lies ahead: major social and
political conflict; military/police repression; tearing up of the
social contract; the nation reduced to a mere US vassal; an
unelected, illegitimate government with no autonomy, sovereignty and
geopolitically sidelined. All the while being “led” by currently
interim, and President-to-be Michel Temer, a mediocre, corrupt coward
who didn’t even have the balls to attend the Olympics’ final
ceremony because he knew he would be booed out of a packed Maracana
stadium.
Welcome to post-coup Brazil: Land
of permanent crisis, a powerless, illegitimate, corrupt government,
economic recession, and unemployment. As Sader noted, “everything
positive that Brazil built this century will be thrown out by a
coup.”
Temer the Usurper could never
aspire to Shakespearean grandeur, as a tragic figure. He’s already
been connected to almost $3 million in kickbacks. The current Foreign
Minister, the despicable Jose Serra, a Chevron asset, has been
accused of receiving over $6 million, including overseas.
Yet further serious accusations
would have targeted right-wing political parties even harder –
utter devastation extended to at least half of Congress – until
they were magically “disqualified” by purposeful leaks. There’s
the rub: in the current Kafkaesque set up, only the “reds” – as
in the Workers’ Party – can be criminalized. Most of these
shenanigans will feature in at least four documentaries currently in
production about the sorry saga.
Immediately after Dilma’s
impeachment, the Senate plans to throw what literally amounts to a
fiscal party – based on raised salaries for Supreme Court
ministers; these salaries regulate the remuneration of all Brazilian
public service. Remember that Dilma is being accused of “fiscal
irresponsibility”.
Many scoundrels/vultures will be
dividing the spoils of a dead democracy. What matters is that the
number one profiteer of impeachment will be the Goddess of the
Market. That also includes Big Business, mainstream media (a monopoly
of five families) and of course, Exceptionalistan. Their mandate is
clear. The presidency is just a detail. What they need to control is
the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank.
Their policies are ready to be
implemented: smash the incipient Brazilian welfare state; keep
interest rates in the stratosphere; impose a “fiscal adjustment”;
and allow capital free flow. Things like this only actually happens
in certified dictatorships.
Now they’ve got the power, the
neoliberal ideology and all the necessary political alliances to pull
it off. Add to this a non-stop offensive against the Workers’ Party
as a means to counter-punch the accusations against Temer the Usurper
and his mediocre chancellor Serra.
So what’s next? The highly
fragmented, hyper-conservative Congress will circle their wagons
against anything that threatens their privileges. The Attorney
General will hardly have the temerity to really investigate Temer the
Usurper and other politicians. Although there is serious evidence of
corruption against them all, the impregnable
juridical/political/police/media shield protecting the scoundrel
galaxy is astonishing. We are deep into protection of organized crime
territory.
Non-stop back room deals are in
progress as we speak. The only certainty ahead is the assassination
of democratic and constitutional rights and the smashing of social
programs.
As I already detailed, the master
plan ahead is vicious, straight from disaster capitalism’s
playbook; selling out the pre-salt oil reserves to foreign, as in US
corporate, interests; selling out indigenous Brazilian industrial
development via hardcore privatization; abandoning the defense of
Brazilian engineering know-how; severe cuts on education, health,
science and technology; At the same time, there will be
“flexibilization” of workers’ rights, as in attacking them on
all fronts; a regressive attack on pensions; and sabotaging Mercosur
– the South American common market – to the benefit of vassal
subordination to US interests.
In the end, Rouseff will exit with
her head held high. As for the Angel of History, he will show the
scoundrels no mercy.
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