Caught On Tape: Brazilian Minister Plots To Overthrow Dilma Rousseff
A high-ranking Brazilian minister has stepped down after audio emerged of him plotting with others to bring down President Dilma Rousseff's administration.
The Guardian reports that Romero Jucá, planning minister, will “go on leave” after a recording of a telephone conversation was released in which he said Rousseff needed to be removed to quash a vast corruption investigation which enmeshed him and many other members of the Brazilian political elite.
More from The Guardian report:
But the dubious motives and machiavellian nature of the plot to remove Rousseff are apparent in the transcript of a phone conversation between Jucá – a powerful ally of Temer’s in the Brazilian Democratic Movement party (PMDB) – and Sérgio Machado, a former senator who until recently was the president of another state oil company, Transpetro.After discussing how they are both targeted by Lava Jato prosecutors, Jucá says the way out is political: “We have to stop this shit,” he says of the investigation. “We have to change the government to be able to stop this bleeding.”
Machado concurs: “The easiest solution would be to put in Michel [Temer].”
Temer is, of course, the man who stepped in as "interim President" and replaced most of the cabinet members after Rousseff was impeached.