The leaders of Brazil’s opposition parties (PSDB, PFL, PV, PDT, and PPS) had a meeting to discuss charges that the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Severino Cavalcanti received payoffs from the firm that runs the restaurant in the Chamber, Buani & Paulucci Ltda.
The president of the PFL, Jorge Bornhausen, said that the leaders intend to call for Cavalcanti’s removal from the presidency. “The accusation is serious.”
According to Bornhausen, Cavalcanti’s defense is equivocal, when he claims he might have signed a paper without reading it.
“I see the situation as becoming increasingly complicated, since the president of the Chamber is losing prestige.”
In response to charges made in the press over the weekend, Cavalcanti released a note, yesterday, September 4, in which he affirms that he has already ordered the director-general of the House, Sérgio Sampaio, to create an investigatory commission to clarify the facts. It will be up to the director-general to name the members of the commission.
Impunity
The presidents of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, and the STJ (Superior Tribunal de Justiça – Superior Appeals Court), Edson Vidigal, opened a seminar yesterday, September 5, entitled “Proposals for a New Criminal Prosecution Model – Combating Impunity.”
For two days, judges, prosecutors, professors and lawyers will be discussing stronger legal mechanisms for combating crimes that are particularly pernicious to society.
ABr