Good morning! In today’s issue: Op. Car Wash arrests a second former Brazilian president. Speaker could jump ship in pension reform. Brazilian assets crash after Temer arrest.
Op. Car Wash arrests a second former Brazilian president
Less than three months after leaving the presidential office, Michel Temer was arrested by Operation Car Wash—alongside 10 other people, including his former Minister of Mines and Energy. Mr. Temer is accused of running a sophisticated criminal ring that used a series of shell companies to siphon BRL 1.8bn from government agencies across decades. Per the case’s prosecutors, Mr. Temer’s group tried to tamper with the probe by forging false documents and eliminating evidence (which would justify his preventive detention).
While Mr. Temer’s arrest was a long time in the making (he is the subject of 10 inquiries), the move seems like a political reaction from Operation Car Wash, coming soon after the Supreme Court decided that crimes connected to elections should be tried in the overburdened, slow-paced Electoral Justice system. Federal Judge Marcelo Bretas, who ordered the arrests, made a reference to that episode. Moreover, the tampering attributed to Mr. Temer allegedly happened in 2017.
This Operation Car Wash...